


Abigail's Backstory

by LilyLuna2018



Category: Gallagher Girls Series - Ally Carter, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Kane Chronicles - Rick Riordan
Genre: All the other characters basically - Freeform, Gen, I don't really know how to tag bear with me, I have surprises so I don't want to put everything in the tags but it's hard not to, No ships are part of the central plot but all canon ships will be included, Working title, i'll probably add more
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-07 07:19:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 34,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7705615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyLuna2018/pseuds/LilyLuna2018
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abigail is an ordinary girl, or so she thinks. When her friend dies, she finds out that she, along with the world, is anything but. Join her on an adventure to save the world with Percy and Liz Jackson, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Leo Valdez, Carter Kane, and Cammie Morgan, plus others. Abigail realizes that she is much more than any ordinary mortal, and so must embrace the consequences that come with it. Companion to the Love and Chaos series by pickles_25 on Wattpad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is my first story that I've let other people (other than a few friends) read, so I welcome all feedback! All rights to Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus and Kane Chronicles), Ally Carter (Gallagher Girls), and pickles_25 (super-awesome person on Wattpad, I suggest you follow and read her works!). This is based off of a story by pickles_25, just someone else's point of view, and a few different events. If you are confused while reading, I suggest you read her series Love and Chaos. There are a few changes that I have made from her story to mine, but they should not effect the overall story. I'm also looking for a new title if anyone has any suggestions. Hope you enjoy!

Hey all you awesome people (yes, you, lovely readers)! Thanks for reading this! Anyways, I'm Abigail, Liz Jackson's friend (from the mortal world-ooh, scary!). She told me it might help to write, to get all my thoughts down on paper. I've had a tough year (as you probably know if you've read Love and Chaos Book 1: Seer of the Generation (hint hint). So here it is. And I apologize in advance for any misunderstandings due to the bad handwriting.

I remember the first day of 8th grade so clearly, one of the clearest memories of my life (which, believe me, include a lot of clear and unclear memories, not all good). I woke up at 5 (yeah, I'm a morning person) and took about an hour trying to decide what to wear. That's really unusual for me, because I honestly don't care about clothes or any of that stuff. I thought about texting Liz, but I didn't know if she'd be up and didn't want to bother her. I guess that means I'm on my own. But today was special. This guy I'd been in love with (for nearly 4 years!) was starting middle school as a 7th grader, so I REALLY wanted to make a good impression. His name's Andrew Schuster, and I knew him from karate, but he never really seemed to pay much attention to me.

Finally, I picked out this dress that I had worn to a banquet this summer. Andrew had seen me in it and, I admit, I looked pretty dang good. It was this short little black sleeveless dress made out of this silky-ish material. My curly blond hair was just brushing the tops of my shoulders, and with my makeup done (covered up by my glasses), it looked pretty nice. But still, I was SO nervous. I had never been good about understanding guys (I mean, I can't even understand myself, how do you expect me to understand something as foreign as boys???) and never gotten any to like me, but I was convinced he would be the one. I called it my Ginny-Weasley-Theory (yes, from Harry Potter). He started liking her after she had spent 4 years liking him. The same should work for me, right? (Hint, it didn't)

After I had done all that and eaten I checked my phone. Turns out Liz is up as early as I am. She texted me, asking, "Ready for your first day of your last year of middle school? And in Novi? L" Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you. I'm moving at the end of this year. From Novi, Michigan to Metro-Atlanta, Georgia. Pretty big change.

I texted back saying, "Sure, I guess. A bit sad, but I'll be okay. What are you wearing for the first day of school?"

A reply came back quickly. "A new dress I got from XXI. What about you, Oracle? Gonna impress da sevie?" 'Oracle' was Liz's nickname for me. She says it's cause I'll take Rachel Elizabeth Dare's place when she goes to Camp Half-Blood. 'Da sevie' is Andrew Schuster since he's a seventh grader, and that's what people call them here (sevies, not 'da sevie').

"I'm wearing the dress from the summer," I replied, walking out to the bus stop with my brother, who will also be starting as a sevie.

The conversation ensued all the way to school, where I got off, nervous. Thankfully, I spotted Liz not too far away. As I got closer I realized that she was talking to Alex Perry, the guy she liked. Well, at first they were talking. Then they started kissing. That was pretty awkward, but really funny and cute too, especially because Liz turned bright red after. We all started walking into the school together, talking and just being us, when something happened. I'm still not quite sure exactly what, but this gigantic wave of heat poured over us. I looked to Liz, ready to spring into action to save whoever needed saving.

"Alex! Get all the mortals safely outside. Oracle, try to find any demigods or satyrs and have them all together. I'll meet you," she instructed us. With that, I ran further into the school, looking for anyone that might be a demigod or satyr, although I wasn't sure how she knew I'd be able to find them.

I did, eventually, find the 3 satyrs of the school: Kiran and 2 other nameless guys that I didn't know. I was pretty surprised (and annoyed) about Kiran being a satyr. He could be nice, I guess, but he's just really annoying. But now I guess I have to be nice to him because he's a stupid satyr (no offense to any other satyrs-I'm sure you're all lovely people, er, goats, er, satyrs). I brought them back to where Liz had been standing just to find Alex sobbing over a pile of rubble.

Fearing the worst, I pulled him aside and started my own unique interrogation method: shaking them until they spill. If they don't, I resort to my nails (which everyone tells me are lethal). "What's wrong? Who's hurt? Is everyone all right? Are you okay?"

"No none's hurt, everyone is not all right, and I am most certainly NOT OKAY!!!"

I decided to practice my calm voice, "Okay, now why not?"

"BECAUSE LIZ IS DEAD, THAT'S WHY!" Okay, so now is about when I started freaking out more than he was, if that was possible. I don't remember much other than sobbing and trying to claw my way through the rubble because that's obviously where she was.

Later that day, there was a small memorial service for Liz. Alex and I sat together, along with another one of our friends, Sarah. We were all crying, although I'm not sure who was crying more, it was kinda hard to tell through all the tears, to be perfectly honest.

Alex turned to me and just started talking, which I know is the best way to help someone get over trauma. He whispered, "How did it overtake her like that?"

"I don't know. Something doesn't feel right about it, like I'd feel her death, except I didn't." It was so sad, seeing poor Alex, completely heartbroken, wring his hands in distress as if he held Death's neck between them. I knew I had to say something. "Hey, it's gonna be okay. We're gonna handle this together."

I put my arm around him for comfort as he said, "No one has ever loved me like she did...All the waiting to end in tragedy..." His tears, which had stopped when talking to me, began to flow once more. I put my head on his shoulder and just tried to forget.

The next month was pretty hard. I somehow managed to get through all my classes without completely falling apart, but I was barely holding myself together. My only distraction was Alex. Every day, we met at the public library and studied, but mainly just talked. Now, normally, my parents would be pretty wary of me doing anything with a guy, but I think they let me do whatever so I didn't completely fall apart on them.

One of those times stands out particularly clearly in my mind. It was the first time he kissed me. I forget why, he just leaned over and did it real quick. Well, any thoughts of studying kind of left my mind at that point (and I'm sure his). Eventually, I got the feeling like someone was watching us. Like I was caught doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing. Alex must have felt the same feeling, because he abruptly turned away, saying, "Abby, I have to go..."

I couldn't bear to have yet another important person in my life just leave, so I said, "No... Lizzy left, please don't go too..."

"I wish I could stay. But I failed to protect her and now there's someone else to wait seven years to actually meet. You'll be moving at the end of the year anyways; we'd be saying goodbye one way or another."

Great, he just had to bring up the bloody (yes, I love British words :D ) move. Like I don't think about it and stress out about it enough already. But he had a point. "I can't move. Or stay. I can't be here. Novi isn't home; I have to leave..."

"I have to leave also," he said, making sure to kiss me one last time before getting up and walking away.


	2. Thought-Sharing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably won't do individual chapter summaries just because that takes a lot of time and there's a lot of chapters here

That night I felt like everything was perfect. Alex had kissed me, not once, not twice, but...actually, I forget how many times. Anyways, I went to bed for the first time in months not having a single care or worry. But, typically, that all had to come to a crash-and-burn end.

I had a dream. Big deal, right? Everyone has them, they're normal. Except my dreams had never been anything but normal. This one was of Liz, which was pretty normal, I had been dreaming about her a lot lately. But she looked a lot older, possibly 17 or 18, but it was kind of hard to tell, because she was, well, DEAD. At least she looked that way. She was super pale, no color whatsoever in her skin, and I could tell that if I were able to touch her, she'd be cold as ice. I started sobbing again. "Why? Why did you have to do this to me?" I screamed at nothing. Then I realized the boy who was sitting there, holding her hand. He looked familiar, but I couldn't figure out from where. Maybe some random kid from school or something. Before I could think about it much more, the door opened, but before I could see who it was behind it, the dream faded out into nothingness...

It faded into, ready for it, another dream! (yaaayyyy) As soon as the fogginess cleared, I realized that this was definitely NOT a normal dream, even by my standards. That's because the person in the dream, was me! A me with strange, glowing green eyes and smoke pouring out of my mouth. I was also speaking in a very strange triple voice, "The ancient lands. To Egypt and Greece, and then Rome and Scotland, you will build yourselves an army of your ancient roots. And then you will set up headquarters. This is not just a war against one enemy... Prepare for the worst. You will need to be ready above ground and in the seas and in the sky. Every nation must unite as one under the protector and her sister, and everyone must fight. Nowhere is safe. Nowhere will be safe until you've won..." and then I passed out.

I woke with a start, breathing heavy. It took me several seconds to realize my alarm was beeping. I leaned over to turn it off. 7:00!!! My bus leaves in 10 minutes! I ran around trying to get ready at 299,792,459 miles per second (that's one mi/s faster than the speed of light for all you non-geeks out there). Even so, I ended up missing it by 20 minutes or so. When questioning my mom, she said she tried to wake me, but couldn't, so she just let me sleep. She eventually drove me to school, but let me skip 1st period, so I could at least make myself look semi-presentable.

As I got to school, I remembered what I hadn't remembered before in all the craziness of the morning: my dream. I was looking all around before I realized what (or who) I was looking for: Liz. Thinking Alex was the next best thing, I decided to wait until 6th period Orchestra (which we luckily have together) to tell him. After class, we decided that since it was a nice day, we'd walk to the library. Along the way, I described my dream. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but certainly not him laughing at me, telling me that I was crazy. Or thanking me for cheering him up. (Both of which he did, by the way) I tried to get him to understand, but he wouldn't listen. Fearing it would lead to an estrangement between us, I let it drop. But I knew that if I had more of those dreams, then maybe he'd believe me.

Well, that night I had more. And every night after for a week. I told Alex every day, but he kept laughing at me, then got really annoyed when I kept telling him about them.

"But, Alex, they're true, I swear!"

"Come on, Abigail, how dumb can I get? How dumb can you get? Oh, well, I bet it's just the blond coming out in you. THEY'RE JUST DREAMS, Abigail!" Now that got me annoyed. If there's anything any of my friends know, it's DON'T. MENTION. MY HAIR. You can call me dumb, or anything else, but NO ONE is allowed to mention it. He knew it perfectly well, but he also knew that that was the main thing that would get me mad.

At that point I pretty much blew up. I started yelling at him, he started yelling at me, the whole deal. It was pretty awful.And at that point, for some strange, odd reason, I knew what he was thinking. It came unbidden, but I didn't stop it. It was something about thinking how he should get me to an asylum.  
"No! You can't!" I said.  
"What are you talking about, Abigail? Maybe I should-"  
"NO! I'm not crazy, Alex! Why won't you believe me?"  
"How did you know I was thinking that?" Now, instead of the 'you're insane' look, it's 'Is she reading my mind?'  
"I'm not sure," I said, replying to his unsaid words. "I really for know what's happening."  
"Okay, that's enough joking around, Abb. It got old a looong time ago."  
"If you don't believe me, fine. I'll just go." And with that, I left, not knowing that that would be the last time I spoke with him for a long time. Or forever. Who knows?

The next week during school I got to know my mind-reading powers a little better.  
'Not mind-reading, Abby. Thought-sharing.'  
At first, I couldn't remember why that thought always popped into my head whenever I used 'mind-reading', but then it hit me: Liz told me that. Many times in fact. That night I remembered the first time I had met her, my partner-in-crime, Lizzy Nelson.  
Sarah brought a new girl to lunch. What's-her-name, the girl with blond hair. Liz. 'Make her go,' my brain thinks. 'She's trying to steal your best friend.' So for the first week I disliked her. I'm not sure how I could've for that long, but I did.

Flash forward a couple weeks...

Liz and I are talking about something, probably Percy Jackson. We both stop talking and look at each other. Even after we stop talking, we can still understand each other. When I look at her, I can hear what she's saying, and somehow I know the same is happening with her.

Yes, thought-sharing. That was it.

The next day I had karate and was thinking about the fight with Alex. He still wasn't talking to me, texting me, anything. Andrew noticed something was up, which was surprising in the first place. He normally didn't talk to me all that much unless I said something to the group as a whole or we were working together, which also wasn't too often. Anyways, he noticed and asked, "Abigail? Are you okay? You seem a little off."

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Let me guess, boy problem? I might be able to help with that."

"Kinda. How'd you guess?"

"I don't know, I guess I just knew."

"Can you help?"

"Of course! Meet me after school tomorrow in the cafeteria, then we'll talk."

"Okay, thanks!"

The next day, right after school, there was Andrew, just as he promised, which was nice for once.

"Okay, now spill."

And I did. I told him everything about Alex and how he wouldn't talk to me or even look at me. I told him how worried and stressed out I was about the move and how I'd have to be saying good-byes really soon. I even managed to talk to him about Liz and how strange her death felt. But when I got to the part about thought-sharing, he didn't laugh. Instead, he said, "Wow, Abigail. I mean, I knew you were smart and everything, but I didn't think you had superpowers or anything."

That made me laugh. It felt nice, after not laughing for so long. I realized that even with Alex, I never laughed like this, with pure humor in it. I remembered what it was like to be happy. Then I asked him, "So you actually believe me?"

"Of course I do. I mean, sure, it's completely crazy and everything, but you said it and I believe you." Wow, to hear someone, especially Andrew, say he believes me, that's huge. Especially now when I need it most.

"Liz isn't dead. And Alex doesn't know that. He told me I lost my mind, Andrew. That he watched her die, but I know better because she appears in my dreams."

"I know, Abigail. And you will find her. I'm certain of it."

"The only thing I can do is to run away to... Anywhere. Where she's going to be. I'll just keep running."

"Okay, and I'll help you."

"You will? I don't need much, just food. And...don't tell my family, please. Just tell them...something. I know you can make up something."

"Okay. And Abigail?"

"Yeah?"

"Go find whoever caused you this much pain and kick them. HARD."

"Okay," I said. I walked away, laughing hard for the first time in months.


	3. Reading is Deadly, Deadly, DEADLY. Seriously.

I ran away. I'm not necessarily proud of it, but it had to be done. I needed to find her. The first few nights I didn't have any place in particular to go, so I just ran east, because I figured I'd probably end up at Camp Half-Blood sooner or later.

But on the 4th night, I had a dream visit from dear old Hades, lord of the dead. At that point I figured I was well and truly dead. My only regret was that I didn't get to say good-bye to Liz and my other friends. But, being ruler of trickery as well as the dead (not a good combination, I tell you), he surprised me.

"Hello, Abigail," he said in his deep, rumbling voice. "I've been expecting you."

"You-you have?" I managed to stammer out. "Why? Am I dead?"

"Oh, no no. I have merely wanted to apologize."

"For what? Like taking my best friend's life?" I yelled. "Why did you do that? And I know she's not really dead, so hand her over. NOW."

"Oh, you see, my dear niece Liz, well, I don't have her. She is also the reason Alex believes you are crazy, you see."

"Why would she do such a thing?"

"Oh, not her," he said with a huge, cavern-echoing laugh.

"But you said-," I started, not understanding how he could find this at all funny.

"It is merely a consequence for a vision of my son's life, death really, that made me take my revenge out on her. As I said, I am truly sorry. Although I don't know how you got Andrew to believe you...the curse was supposed to apply to everyone... Oh, well!"

"Well, I don't know it didn't work on Andrew," I said. 'Although, it could be-' 'NO.' 'Okay then.' "But I do need to know where she is. So tell me, otherwise I will just kill myself now and get this miserable mortal life over with."

"No need to go to extremities, Abigail. You will find her in Reading, Pennsylvania. Yes," he replied, catching a glance at my face that filled with overjoyed-ness. "There will be plenty of books. In fact, here are some right now. These are your favorite, am I correct in assuming?"

"Yes, but, how did you know?" He had produced, out of thin air, some of my absolute favorite books in the world: the whole Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series, the entire Harry Potter series, the Books of Bayern, and my absolute favorite, The Book Thief. All in all, it was a total 22 books. "And, how am I supposed to carry them all? They won't all fit in my backpack!" I showed him my bag which was miraculously filled with more food, water, and clean clothes. "Was this your doing, sir?"

"I know because I am a god. I know everything-"

"Not everything," I muttered.

"-As for fitting them in, the bag can now fit whatever you want in it. And yes, it was. I hope you like them," he finished. "And it's nice to hear a 'sir' again," he mumbled.

"Thank you, sir," I said with a wink. "Now, I really must be going. It's probably about dawn, and I need to get to Reading!"

The next couple weeks I spent traveling. It was hard work, but I was motivated. Finding out your dead friend is suddenly not dead certainly is a good motivator. I also got to read all my books as I read. I hoped the Mist would protect me from any wandering eyes and help keep me from tripping so much (I was proved wrong on the second part). I might have also helped the hiding part due to my natural ability and want to escape into the shadows. I knew it would help sooner or later, but hadn't quite realized how serious it would be that I have it. Especially since a herd of monsters, led by the ugly Minotaur, had been tracking me from Toledo. Probably something I picked up at the Zoo.

Finally I got to Reading. I was miserable. I was tired, exhausted (yes, those are two different things. Look it up.), starving, parched, my hair was a disaster, and I had started to really, really smell. It wasn't a good combination, especially since everyone either didn't notice me, ignored me, or took one look and decided I was a good-for-nothing hobo who also loved to collect books instead of showers.

"Alright, Hades, I listened to you. I'm in Reading, Pennsylvania. What the heck do you want from me?" I screamed at the sky. No one answered. 'I knew I should have screamed at the ground,' I thought. 'Now he might think I've mistaken him for Zeus. Great, just great.'

I waited for a couple days until I saw the Argo II pass over me and land not too far from where I had been sitting, half-collapsed on a park bench. A few minutes later, Liz ran out and before she could do anything, I asked, "Well, Lizzy, it's about time you got here. Unless you want to tell me I'm crazy. Can never tell with Hades, can you?"

At that point she could no longer restrained herself and ran at me. "Oracle!! Oh my gods, are you okay? Did anyone hurt you?"

"I'm fine, okay? Now, we need to get to Roseville, Virginia, and preferably before-" I was interrupted by the unmistakable sound of an angry Minotaur. It sounded like a bull with some serious digestion problems. It would have been funny if it hadn't kept trying to kill me. "-They get here," I finished reluctantly. "Is everyone okay with fighting here?" This time, I addressed the group as a whole. I noticed people who could only be Percy, Leo, Hazel, Frank, and then this other guy who introduced himself to me as Carter Kane. "Oh, from the Kane Chronicles? Like the Red Pyramid?" I asked.

"Yeah, have you read them?" he asked, relieved. Guess he didn't want to retell his life's story. I get that.

"No, I've just heard of them. I got bored a short way into the first book. No offense," I added hurriedly.

"None taken, but now I guess..."

"I don't need your life story unless you want to tell it, Carter," I said softly. "I get that it isn't the easiest thing in the world."

I looked back over to where the fight was going on, she faintly heard Liz scream, "Over here, cow head!"

'Bad move,' I thought. I'd tried that before. Wasn't pretty. I ended up with a nice slash across my face for that one.

But then I heard the Minotaur talk. I had heard it speak once before, when it corrected my insult, but apparently no one else had. It said, "bull head" and took a swing at Liz, swiping her across the stomach. She stabbed it so it exploded into dust, then collapsed.

We all rushed over, but I was the first one there, checking for any major bleeding (internal or external, both are bad, but internal's a little harder to fix.) She seemed okay. She was breathing calmly.

Just as I was about to announce this to the group, Leo decided to check for himself, poked her, and said, "It's okay everyone!! She's not dead; she's still squishy!" I heard the faint pop of Lizzy's sock on the arm that I knew oh too well, and smiled.

Then I realized how darn exhausted I was and plopped down onto the ground. Soon enough, everyone was gathered around me too. I said, before anyone could poke me, "Anyone who touches me in any way gets a lot more than a punch in the arm. Just give me a minute." I was up soon enough and no one bothered to help me up, probably because of the warning I had just given them. I didn't blame them. Liz might very well have told them all about my fondness of punching people and ability to break their bones.


	4. Deadly Stories

As we got onto the Argo II, I couldn't help but gape. It was incredible. Everything was amazing, especially Festus, the bronze dragon that appeared to be flying the thing by itself. I vaguely heard Percy tell Liz to go rest, since she had just been stabbed and all. Then he turned to me and said, "Come on, I'll take you to the sickbay. You've been through a lot. Are you sure you don't need me to carry you? You look like you're gonna pass out on me here."

"I'm fine, Perseus," I said back, making to emphasize his name, knowing that he would hate it.

He replied dubiously, "Okay then." He dropped me off and was on his way to his room (probably to rest) when he turned and snapped, "And don't call me Perseus!"

"All right, Perseus," I whispered under my breath, knowing that he wouldn't be able to hear it.

I had stayed there for an hour or two when Leo and Carter came running in with Liz in their arms. She was all limp and pale and totally dead-looking. Not only that, but Leo looked like he was about to cry.

"Is she okay?" I half-screamed. I couldn't lose her once, much less twice.

"Abigail! What are you doing here?" I guess Leo hadn't seen me as he ran in. He dropped Liz. Oops.

"Well, Percy said I should stay here until I 'get better'."

"Okay, fine, whatever. Just, don't be so quiet and still. Holy Hephaestus, girl, are you always so sneaky?"

"Um, I'm not really sure..."

"Oh. Can you and Carter stay here with Liz while I get Percy?"

"Of course," Carter and I said at once.

After he left, I rounded on Carter. "Alright, tell me what happened. Now!"

"Um, well, Leo found her in her room (don't ask me what he was doing in there. I don't know and I don't want to know) and according to him she looked all dead and, well, a lot like this. So he got me and we came here. I'm sure he can tell you more."

"No, it's fine. Thanks though."

"No problem," he mumbled back in reply.

The silence that followed could only be described as awkward. Neither of us were talking, just staring at Liz, our surroundings, occasionally each other (that stopped really quick), until Carter eventually broke the silence.

"So...you're Abigail, huh?"

"Yeah, that would be me. I think. Unless you're talking about another Abigail." Long silence. "Are you?"

"No. Wait, am I?"

"I don't know. I think we've both confused the schist out of ourselves."

"Schist?"

"Sorry, inside-Percy-Jackson-joke. Long story."

"Okay then," he said, half-laughing. "So before we got on this...plane-ship-thing, it sounded like you understood what it was like having a difficult life. Even though you're mortal."

"Yeah, well, even mortals have tough lives," I muttered bitterly.

"Care to talk about it?"

"Not really. The last time I did that it all got thrown back in my face. Correction: that was 2 times ago. Andrew hasn't done anything to make me regret it. Yet."

"Well, maybe you should try opening up, it helped me, that's for sure."

"That's a really good idea. Thanks, Carter."

"Happy to help. Start wherever I guess."

"Okay. Well it all started when-" The door banged open, cutting me off. Percy and Leo came running in. I stepped back into the shadows as Percy and Carter began to examine her. I would too, but I tend to break things, especially complicated mechanics (which most definitely includes living organisms), as soon as I lay a finger on them.

Thankfully, Leo voiced my concern. "Is... Is she okay, Perce?" Poor guy, it looks like his heart's broken.

"Someone seems to have gotten centaur's blood in her wound. Whoever did had quite the touch of ice. It's like she got a quick shot of hypothermia and never quite heated back up," Percy said. He was clearly worried, and for good reason: Centaur's blood is pretty much acid, and you don't want to mess with hypothermia. Wait, did he say touch of ice?

"Khione!" Leo blurted. Apparently he had come to the same conclusion that I had. No wonder she was so pale. If she doesn't get healed properly...

I snuck out and tried to find my way to my room, Liz had said I was in Piper's old room. Great, I hope it isn't painted pink or anything. Thankfully, it looked like every other part of the ship. In other words, brown and gray. I put all my stuff away, then stood in the hallway for a few minutes, just standing there, with no real purpose. Then I went back into my room and sat down on the bed with my head in my hands.

"Why does it always end up like this? I try to help someone out and al it ends up doing is killing them." I sat there for a while before I realized I wasn't alone.

"Um, Abigail? What are you doing in my room?"

"What? This is...oh." Now I remember, when I was out in the hall, I went into the room across the hall and then...oops. "Sorry, I stepped into it by mistake. I thought it was mine, which is across the hall." I looked around and realized that this was Jason's old room. "Don't you think it's odd that they put Jason's and Piper's rooms right across from each other?"

"Um, no, not really."

"Oh, well, never mind."

"I don't mean to be nosy or anything, but were you crying?"

"No. It-it's nothing."

"So there is something. You can tell me, you know. 'I get that it isn't the easiest thing in the world.'"

I laughed. That brought all the courage I needed to tell my story. "Okay, I will."

"Great! Just start from wherever."

"Alright. So, it really all started when Liz was a new kid at mu school, in 7th grade..." I told him the whole thing, even all the parts about Alex. He had to restrain me from finding and hilling him when it came to that part. It took about an hour and a half to tell the whole thing.

After I was done, he asked, "Now isn't that better?"

"Yeah. Thanks! I'm going to go check on Liz now, if you don't mind."

"Okay, just remember one thing: it was never your fault."

I walked away, so very happy that I had found someone who could finally be a big brother to me. Growing up with only younger brothers, there were times when I wished I had a sister or an older brother, to help advise me with their all-knowing wisdom (not). And I think I've finally found just that very person.

As I walked into the sick bay, I saw that Leo was still there. I realized that he had probably never left. I decided to let him be aware of my presence. "Liz always said thinking causes too much stress on the brain. I didn't mean to disturb you, nut I wanted to check on her."

"Don't worry, Abigail, she's in good hands as long as I'm here. And I know, she tells me that all the time." As I got my first real look at him, I was so surprised to remember that Liz wasn't too much younger than him now. Oh, wait, well, she's actually a few thousand years older, but oh well.

Suddenly I asked, "If you're so in love with her, then why do you stay with Drew?" Then I realized the rudeness of the question and tried to apologize. "Sorry, I know I'm not supposed to be aware, but I get weird dreams concerning things I've never even considered."

"Drew has charmspeak. It makes it impossible to defy her. So every time she tells me to do something then I feel obliged." I could tell he didn't like her powers of governing him, but I knew how it felt to be under someone else's total control.

"Ah, I see. I've felt that way too." Nice loooong awkward pause. "She'll be okay you know," I said, gesturing to Liz. "She seems to enjoy almost dying and then being perfectly fine."

He shrugged, then said, "Usually her pulse isn't slowing and her temperature dropping. But I can see her making a dramatic comeback."

"Of course you can! It's Liz! Just be careful. She may decide to punch you just for kicks if you're too close to her."

"Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised." He turned and looked at her, his love clear on his face. With my "new" thought-sharing powers, I could tell what he was thinking about, or at least the gist of it. I was surprised that it worked just as well, if not better, with someone I didn't know. But I guess I have known him for a while, reading his story for years.

At the moment, he was wondering who was making Liz happier, me (for finally being there) or him (for being there the whole time). "It's both," I said. "But more you than me. I just got here, but you've been loyally waiting by her side."

He looked really worried when I said that, saying, "How did you know that? Are you reading my mind?"

"I'm not sure. Liz never called it mind reading. More like thought-sharing. I was never able to before, but after her age switch some of her powers must have been suspended in time, and the Fates decided I should get them." I shrugged, I didn't really get it either.

"Oh," he said, clearly relieved. "So I don't' have to worry about her reading my mind?"

"Nah, just me. Mostly because I'm not sure how to control it. I can hardly control the things I was born capable of, like making prophetic theories or having dreams laced with messages of the future."

"Ah. You almost sound like an aspiring Oracle," he said.

'Here it goes again,' I thought.

"From what I've heard, Rachel Elizabeth Dare experienced similar things."

"I'm not an Oracle, trust me. That requires gibing up guys, which would just bring more crushes which would be more complicated and such. Although, it has gotten better," I added as an afterthought.

"Maybe after a while of considering making the change it would get easier?" I could tell how surprised he was, especially with how logical the advice was.

"You know what else seems logical? Food. Accompany me to the kitchen?"

"I haven't eaten since yesterday!" he said. "Food would be amazing. And it would only do Liz honor, she loves food."

"True true. Let's go!"

It was a little after 8, and I was starving. I ate a ton, and probably wouldn't have stopped if I hadn't talked to Leo a little, to make it a bit less awkward.

"This is definitely the best food I've had in weeks! So the boat, uh, flying-ship-thing, is being steered towards Roseville, Virginia, right?"

"Yep. I think it's Frank's shift for flying right now. Hazel has the next one, and I'm after that. Liz usually would be next after Percy, but in her sickness you could fill in," he suggested.

I was horrified at the thought of being in charge of something so magnificent. "I can't fly the Argo! There are way too many complicated controls and whatnot. Besides, Liz will be better by then," I told him stubbornly.

"Alright fine. But if you're going to be an official part of the crew, you need to learn to fly this baby." I nodded, trying to conceal my excitement at being an "official part of the crew". "So what's in Roseville anyways?"

"The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young People, formerly the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. They'll tell you many things about that school: that it's a prep school for bored rick kids or even a school for geniuses. But that's not true. It's a school for spies. My ex-boyfriend goes there, kind of."

Leo looked really confused and concerned, especially considering his past with the government. "Spies? Are they our next allies? What do the feds have to do with all this saving the world jumbo?"

"Um, they're spies," I pointed out. "So that's pretty much their intention too. It's difficult to explain. You'll understand once we're there that there's a purpose for all this," I promised, hoping that it would be true.

"Okay. I trust you, Abigail. Now you need a nickname...I say 'amazing mortal.' What do ya think?"

"I think I'm cool with it," I responded, trying, and failing, not to blush.

At about nine, we went back to the sickbay where Liz was sleeping peacefully, perfectly healthy again. A little while after, I left to go back to my room and to get some well-needed beauty sleep.


	5. Ooh, Spies!

After After an extremely restful 10 hours of deep, dreamless, sleep (surprising, right?), I sat down to breakfast. Everyone turned to me. Not surprising, since I had only talked to Leo, Carter, Liz, and Percy (barely). I introduced myself and pretty much explained why we were going to someplace as out-of-the-way as Roseville, Virginia. I looked over at Liz at the mention of Alex, and not surprisingly, she had that ‘don’t-show-your-feelings’ look.

Liz finally broke the silence that followed the explanation. “Alright, well, looks like we’re almost at our destination, right?”

“Mhm,” I agreed. “Just about five more minutes. Is there a plan, Lizzy?” if there’s anything she’s taught me, it’s that you shouldn’t go blindly in to something. You always need a plan. And a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th plan, as back-up. Actually, never mind that about being the only thing she’s taught me, she’s taught be a lot.

“Well, I’m assuming we can’t just waltz into the most secure school in the world, so…hm, here’s what I was thinking.” We all leaned in and she whispered the plan. Ooh, was it going to be fun!

As we stood in front of the school, I could barely contain my excitement. I’ve been wanting to come here for years and I finally get the chance, even if it isn’t the way I imagined it.

“Well, Kane, you ready?” Liz asked.

“Mhm. L’men.” I guess that was a sort of spell (not Harry Potter, of course. Unfortunately) because immediately after he said it, we all became shadows, invisible to all mortals. All mortals except for me, of course.

“Levesque?”

“Ready.” She concentrated for a moment, then formed a Mist-path that apparently lead to the headmistresses’ office.

“Zhang, Valdez, and Jackson?” In response they drew their weapons and guarded the rest of us, encircling us in a circle of pure awesome and butt-kicking weaponry and demigods.

“O’Meara?”

“I’m ready to lead them if you are,” I said back, now unable to keep a huge grin from spreading across my face.

We made it in without too much trouble. Of course, the magic bubble kept sparking, Liz and I occasionally took a few wrong turns, Percy kept trying to talk to Frank (even though the bubble wasn’t necessarily soundproof), and, predictably, Leo tried to flirt with every 12th grade girl we came across. I say tried because he would have succeeded if Liz or I (usually both) hadn’t been there to pull him away, punch him, cover his moth, and tell him to shut up and keep quiet (yes, I realize that’s redundant).

Eventually, we appeared just outside of the office. I couldn’t help but gape in awe at the incredible castle-mansion-building which was a school.

“Who the bloody heck are you and how did you get in here???” said a woman, about 24, with dark shin and black hair.

I was about to shriek because I realized it was none other than Rebecca “Bex” Baxter, the amazing MI6 agent who was right up there with 007, when Percy stepped forward and, with an incredible amount of politeness and formality, “said, “Amazing security system, Ms. Baxter (is that correct?). But I think our first order of business ought to be magic-proofing this place.”

A man appeared, about the same age as Bex, who could only be Zachary Goode. His brown hair and eyes, along with the fact that he was the only guy who was the right age, other than Josh Abrams, who this guy obviously wasn’t. “Calm down, Bex. I’m sure these kids will explain themselves,” I saw everyone glare at the word kids, “under the influence of some of Ms. Sutton’s truth serum and separate interrogation rooms, of course.”

Frank stepped up and shook his head. With the commanding aura of a child of Mars, he said, “Look, we didn’t mean any trouble. Take us into separate rooms. Drug us, but our stories will match. The redhead here is our leader,” he finished, gesturing at Liz.

Then Cammie, with her dirty blonde hair and happiness glowing in her eyes, came out from behind Zach. I knew that it must have taken a lot to make them that way. I knew it because I see it every time I look in a mirror. “Well, alright,” she said. “By the way, this is Bex and ach, and I’m Cammie.” She surveyed us, taking in everything from my torn clothes to Percy’s, Frank’s, and Leo’s weapons. “Are you going to introduce yourselves?” she finally asked.

Liz cleared her throat and began the introductions. “This is Frank, Hazel, Percy, Leo, Abigail, and Carter, and I am Liz.” She pointed to each of us in turn. “We are demigods, and well, Carter is a magician. If you don’t believe us, drug us. You’ll get the same story.

Cammie, who was obviously the headmistress (she did have a nametag on that said Headmistress Morgan), shrugged in response. “Okay. Just want you to know that this stuff is like truth serum, only stronger, so you’ll probably pass out after we’ve exhausted the use of each dose.”

“Thanks for the warning, Cammie…” Leo muttered.

“Shh!” I whispered, punching him in the arm yet again.

He continued, “If you guys weren’t spies, I wouldn’t be so motivated and would just walk right back out.”

“Walking in is the easy part Mr.” Cammie gave him a long look. “Your interrogation rooms and truth serum shots are waiting for you.”

We were lead to a hallway with several doors, one for each of us. I stepped into one, as Liz did the same next to me. In there, a woman was waiting for me. Her hair, long and dark, was swept over one shoulder. I was immediately jealous, as I’d always wanted dark hair, not this…pale abomination that I was stuck with. I’ll never stop hearing those idiotic ‘dumb blonde’ jokes for as long as I live.

Her stunning green eyes gleamed with excitement as she pulled a syringe filled with liquid. “You ready, Blondie?” I clenched my hands into fists and tried to control the blood flooding into my face. No luck. “Okay, I get it. No need for extremes, otherwise I’ll just end up having to kill you.” I must’ve had a look of pure terror on my face because she laughed, loudly. “Joking, joking. But seriously, are you ready? I’m Agent Abigail Cameron, by the way.”

“Yeah, I’m ready.” And with that she stabbed the syringe into my arm. I flinched REALLY hard, like with all needles, not because of the pain but more because of the shock and anticipation of the non-existent pain. Immediately my thoughts became more jumbled than normal (believe me, that’s hard to do).

“Well lets’ get stared then,” she said, rubbing her hands together. It was slightly alarming. “Name?”

“Abigail O’Meara,” I replied, wincing at how my ‘Rs’ became ‘Ws’ again, as if I had never gone to speech.

“Another Abigail, huh? Bet you aren’t as awesome as I am though. Hometown?”

“Um, well I've been a lot of places, but Novi, Michigan.”

She eventually managed to pull the whole story from me, starting on the 1st day of 8th grade to Alex to running away, to ending up in Reading, making sure to add plenty of Abigail jokes.

She closely listened, writing everything down, then summarized it by saying, “so you realized your friend wasn’t dead, so you ran all the way from Michigan to Pennsylvania?”

“Well…yeah.”

“Okay now, you’re about to pass out any moment, but someone will be back in a few hours to test you again.” I meant to say “okay,” but as soon as she finished her sentence, I was out like a light.

I dreamt, once again, about me spouting out the prophecy that began “The ancient lands…” As it was replaying in my mind, I realized something: the closer I got to something from a dream actually happening, the more frequently I had that dream. Leading up to Liz almost dying (with the Minotaur), the dreams of it became closer and closer together, always leaving off when the door was opened (by future-me). Well, this was twice that I’ve had it. I wonder when, or if it will become fact.

In the real world I heard a door creak slightly as if it were being opened. My eyes flew open to see a petite blonde girl who couldn’t’ have been much taller than me. Her big blue eyes shone with curiosity, even though she must have been Cammie’s age. She ran into the table next to my chair and kind of squealed while saying, “Oopsy daisy.”

My eyes widened even more as understanding flowed into my mind. “Liz! I mean, um, are you Ms. Sutton?”

“Well, yes, but why are you up already? The serum should’ve kept you knocked out for a couple more hours.”

Yeah, sorry about that. I’m a light sleeper and I heard you open the do—wait, did you say hours?”

“It normally knocks you out for 4-6 hours, and it’s only been 3.” Her tiny face was scrunched up in worry. Worry, I realized, that she might not be good enough.

“I swear I didn’t do anything to it. I’m just a light sleeper,” I repeated.

“Okay. Well, since you’re up now, I guess we’ll just do the test now.”

“Okay. I’m ready.”

“Good,” she said, stabbing me in the arm, the other one this time. “Now, were not going to do the exact t=same thing, it would be futile. I wouldn’t find out anything new, I just want to know your life, your whole life before the beginning of your 8th grade year, okay?”

“Okay.” I explained moving previously, my approaching move at the end of the year, and my dreams (life dreams and sleep-dreams).

“Good,” she said after I finished. “Well, I’ll just wait in here until you wake up, to see what happens.”

This time I dreamt about Liz dying, the one that I had before it happened. This time, though, I wasn’t just there, I was completely reliving the experience, with no way of knowing that it was just a dream and had actually already happened. This time was worse for some reason, increasing the noise, fear, and most of all, the feeling of helpless panic and hopeless abandonment.

I woke up again to Ms. Sutton, except this time sh3e was lightly shaking me, obviously trying to wake me from the nightmare, which had completely drained me emotionally.

“I’m-I’m okay,” I managed to stammer shakily.

“It’s been a few hours, so now-“

I’m not sure what she was going to say, because she was cut off by a wild Percy running in and dragging me into another room, this one with a picture of what looked like Liz as an 11-year old.

“I’ll go get her!” I yelled to Percy and ran to her interrogation room to find the rest of the questers already there.

“Zach’s in there with her, Ms. Sutton said. “He’s waking her up now.”

Ignoring the protests coming from Cammie and Ms. Sutton, I reached towards the door handle and pushed it open.

Cammie looked from Liz to Ms. Sutton before saying hesitantly, “Uh, Liz…this is my good friend and colleague…Liz Sutton. I see now this is going to be an issue…”

“At least Ms. Sutton didn’t interrogate Liz like Agent Cameron interrogated me. That was weird,” I said fervently.

“Hey other Liz,” Liz (Jackson) said. “’Sup Abigail. Cammie, I was told something was wrong with; my brother so I suggest you take me to him!”

We followed Cammie back to where Percy was still staring at the picture.

Liz asked Cammie nervously, “Cammie, why does the Gallagher Academy have this picture? Tell me!”

“We always keep a picture of the Circle’s next targets. But, you can’t be her. That picture is three yours old and you’re seven years older than that photo. Besides, Elizabeth Nicole Noel died in a fire. Our trainee Alex was protecting her at the time and losing her has scarred him terribly.”

“Not enough apparently,” I muttered under my breath.

“They say the fire incinerated my body. That’s their excuse for all the ashes and why they never found me because that’s what your puny mortal minds can comprehend.” I gasped, I wouldn’t have necessarily used to words ‘puny mortal minds’ when referring to a group of spy geniuses. “And of course you spies believe the fire was started by the Circle. Let me tell you! You’re right, except I didn’t die.” Wow, she was really tense. I’ve never heard her sound this angry before. “A boy named Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, flew downs and then flew me up and my old friend Artemis change my age four years older and…the Circle wants me because I know things as I am a Seer.”

A man with slightly gray hair and electric blue eyes, kinda like how I imagined Jason and Thalia’s to be, was in the room too. He said, “If she’s alive, someone should get Alex. We should celebrate at once. By the say, I’m Agent Townsend, formerly of Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”

“No!” Liz yell3ed, startling everyone in the room. “If you tell him you could…shred the fabric of reality for him, tear through the mist! As far as he is to be concerned, I am Liz Jackson, daughter of Poseidon, and the Seer of this generation. He cannot ever know my true identity.

Ms. Sutton asked in her quiet voice, “Why can’t he? He is heartbroken at your death. I think he deserves to be at peace.”

I couldn’t help myself this time and said, a little louder than I normally would have, “”He seemed at peace the last time I saw him. Of course,” I added as an afterthought, “he also said I needed psychological help, so maybe he was being a little rash and not so peaceful.”

Then Agent Cameron walking in and said, “You must be their leader.” She gesture to Liz and continued, “I’M Abigail Cameron-Townsend. We decided for Operation purposes I would hyphenate instead of changing my last name completely.” After she introduced herself she walked over to Agent Townsend’s side and winked at him.

“Uh, two Liz’s, two Abigails… This just got interesting,” Leo realized. “Here’s the system: my Liz, we’ll call her Ms. Jackson and call your Liz Ms. Sutton. And our Abigail we’ll call be her full name and your Abigail we’ll call by Abby.

Zach must have been thinking along the same lines as me, because he remarked, “Why is Ms. Jackson your Liz but Abigail is all of yours?”

His green eyes were sparkling as Leo flushed a deep pink.

“I slipped me tongue,” he countered sharply. “She isn’t MY Liz. She’s her own Liza and no one would live long enough to own her,” he said, clenching his teeth.

‘Aww,’ I thought. ‘That’s so sweet! But true, she would never allow someone to take control of her like others have done.’

I was brought back to reality by Liz, er, Ms. Jackson, saying, “Anyways, we figure we’re going to need to stay here for…oh, a week or so. Figure we might need to prove ourselves Gallagher Girls and Blackthorne Boys-worth.” I thought that being a Blackthorne Boy might not be the greatest ambition considering their past, but I still couldn’t contain my excitement at being a Gallagher Girl.

“Alright,” Cammie agreed. “You’ll start with the seventh graders’ schedule in them morning. Bex, why don’t you show them to their rooms?

Bex directed us to our room thankfully a nice ivory color, then went off to show the boys their room. We got unpacked, then hazel started sketching and Liz left the room to go to the headmistress’s office. I watched Hazel for a little bit, it was quite good, then fell asleep, excited for the next day.


	6. Ball Time!

The next morning I woke up and got my first shower in Hades knows how long. Actually, considering how he had been watching me all this time, he probably is the only one who knows. I went down to breakfast with Liz and Hazel, where Headmistress Morgan made a grand announcement welcoming us. It was super embarrassing, especially when she introduced me, because Alex stared right at me. Alex! As in my one and only ex-boyfriend! Turns out he goes here too. Guess he didn't feel like telling me he went to the 2nd best school ever (the 1st would be Hogwarts). Just add that to the list of all the OTHER things he never told me.

"Just ignore him," whispered Liz. "He's not worth getting upset over-no one is."

That day we all started with the 7th grade classes. They were all so easy that by the end of the day, Percy, Liz, Leo, Carter, Hazel, and Frank were on the freshman level, while I was happily remaining with those my own age. I wasn't bitter, especially because (a) they were older and much, MUCH smarter, and (b) the eighth grade classes were plenty challenging enough, thank you very much.

Our languages class, Countries of the World (COW), was thankfully easy. I was simultaneously learning five different languages! For those that are wondering, I was learning Spanish (boring), French (also boring), German (fun but easy), Chinese (fun and slightly more difficult), and Japanese (fun and a little harder). I was also very glad that the teachers didn't cut me any slack because I was new and was leaving soon. Probably. I might want to stay here and finish out the year. I mean, I have kids my own age with the same-ish level of intelligence, and I wasn't a freak, was something very new. I also had P&E, Protection and Enforcement, which was just like karate, and I loved it. I had a black belt in karate from Novi, and it came in real handy with P&E. I wasn't the best, but I wasn't the worst either, which was also new.

At lunch on our 8th day, I was told something that was equal parts exciting and terrifying: there was going to be an incognito ball on Halloween, the day before we left. Actually, scratch that; it was 100% terrifying.

Hannah piped up and said, "Oh, Abigail! You should totally go with Alex! You guys would be super cute together!"

"Hah!" I heard a voice say from behind me. A voice that could only belong to one person. And that person was the one and only Alex Perry. "Like I would ever be caught with her."

I stood up, face-to-well, chin, and was about to make an amazing comeback wen Liz came to my rescue.

"Alex Perry."

"Yes?" he replied, somewhat meekly.

"Don't give my friend such a hard time, kid. You pushed her away like a fool and treating her like dirt will get you nowhere."

"Yes, ma'am." Then, silence.

"I'm sorry that you lost the protectee, Alex. But don't be angry at the world. Elizabeth Nicole Noel's death wasn't your fault."

Then Cammie appeared and asked, "Liz? Come with me."

I watched her go, worried that she'd get in trouble, and the crowd watching the event unfold dispersed. After everyone was out of eavesdropping distance, Tanya leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, "Now what was THAT all about?"

I hesitated before answering quietly, "Alex and I, we, um, we knew each other before I came here."

"Well, duh, we all knew that. I meant, what is this about him pushing you away?"

"Well, we were...we were together for a month (September) before he, well he called me a lunatic and so he's been acting like this to me ever since."

"But he's obviously still in love with you! Why else would he harass you?" Hannah blurted.

"Because he's a little jerk. I'm going to class," I said abruptly, ending the conversation. I hurriedly gathered my stuff and headed off to class.

The next day, Professor Buckingham and Madame Dabney took us girls dress shopping for the ball, which was in only a few days. As I tried to hide behind a rack of very poofy dresses, Professor Buckingham brought a pale blue dress over to me.

"Ms. O'Meara, I thought you might like this particular dress. What do you think?"

Now this was most definitely a trick question. Do I tell her honestly that I think this came right out of Cinderella and just because I'm blonde does not in any way mean I am Cinderella or Goldilocks and risk facing her wrath, or do I lie and therefore suffer the consequence(s) of wearing it? As I was contemplating how best to deal with this dilemma, she said, "Abigail! I'm not getting any younger here."

"Sorry, Professor Buckingham. I, I guess I'll wear the dress," I finally replied, surrendering to her indomitable will.

My new friends were all begging to see my dress, but I refused, saying that they'd have to wait until the night of the ball, just like everyone else.

Have you every dreaded something so terrible and then it was there in a minute well, this was an example of that, except it happened in a second. No, seriously. I actually don't remember any of the two days between walking back from the store to Hazel telling me it was time to get changed. She offered to do my hair, which I (hopefully) politely declined, saying there was nothing anyone could do with this mane of-stuff.

I was standing with Hannah and a few other 8th grade girls, wearing my Cinderella-esque dress and silver flats waiting for Tanya and Liz when Liz walked in. I couldn't help it, I stared. She was gorgeous. She had on a super short black dress with leggings and a fuzzy jacket. She was wearing 5-inch heels that looked like they should be registered as a lethal weapon, and had a messy hairdo with a stunning eyeshadow job.

But then she stopped and gaped at me. I panicked, thinking I looked awful, and said, "Is it bad? I didn't choose it, Professor Buckingham did, but I didn't disagree. Was it a mistake?"

She looked shocked that I would ever think such a thing. "You look great, Abigail! Absolutely wowing. I'll bet you hate the girly glow though, right?"

"It is weird," I agreed.

Hannah burst in, "I think it looks wonderful! Imagine how Alex will fell seeing you in-"

"The dress has nothing to do with Alex," I corrected sternly, my blood boiling. 'Why do they all think I'm still in love with him? I've made it clear that I'm not!' "As I said, it was the teacher's choice. Now, where is Tanya? Our identities are about to be handed out!"

Tanya, speak of the devil, came racing around the corner. "Were you just waiting for me? I'm sorry!"

"It's fine," Liz said. "Let's had to the Main Hall." Percy, Carter, Leo, Frank, and Hazel joined them as they waited for the mysterious Zachary Goode to appear. I was curious about what kind of teacher he would be, especially since I wouldn't take his class, CoveOps, until sophomore year. That is, if I stayed.

From behind me, I heard one of Liz's friends, Kelly I think, standing with her date, say, "Leo looks good. He's only missing the sequined shoes of badas-"

Agent Goode walked in, causing her to shut up abruptly. He handed a card to everyone. "Read it, memorize it, become it. Tonight you are who the card says you are."

I looked at my card. Oh. Crap. This was going to be much more difficult than I thought. Slow music started and I had no idea what to do. Well, I assumed the...individual I was impersonating would be flirting with another individual. Unfortunately for me, I was currently trying to avoid the person impersonating that particular individual.

"Hey, Abigail."

Shoot. "I think you must be mistake, Alex," I corrected with what I'd hoped to be a charming smile.

"Oh. Right. Well, I think you look really nice by the way."

"Thanks, Alex. Oh, wait, you aren't really Alex, are you?"

"No. I'm..." he checked his card. "Sam Johnson."

"Well now there's a coincidence."

"Why? And are you okay? You don't seem like yourse-oh, right. Who are you?"

"That's for me to know and for you to find out."

We continued that, both of us shamelessly flirting with each other (me because I had to, and him because he's, well, ALEX), until he finally asked me to dance. I agreed, since I knew my impersonatee would do the same. At about midnight, I managed to extract myself and escape to my room, where I collapsed on the bed.

"What's wrong, Abigail? You look like a fire truck! Wait, did Alex-"

"Oh hey, Liz. And no! Well, it has to do with him, but he didn't actually do anything."

"I'm not following."

"He had to impersonate Sam Johnson."

"Oh. How is that bad? And how did they know about him?"

"Well, I had to impersonate Elizabeth Noel. And they've well, kept a lot of tabs on you apparently."

"Oh. OH. So...what happened?"

"We flirted. Let me make that clear. I FLIRTED WITH ALEX PERRY."

"Did he know who you were impersonating?"

"No. I wouldn't tell him. It sounded like something someone would do. Oh no. he might think I was acting as myself! At least we're leaving tomorrow. That reminds me, why are you back so early? I thought you were talking to Leo."

"He, uh, asked me to dance. And I said no."

"Oh."

"If you don't mind, hon, I'm going to get some sleep. Big day tomorrow."

She went to sleep almost immediately, but I stayed awake, my mind running through things over and over so much that it barely registered when Hazel walked in, saw that I was awake, and said, "Oh, hey, Abigail." Let's just sleep was a long time in coming.


	7. Don't Tempt Fate. Or Amazons.

The next morning when I woke up, Liz was already gone and Hazel was just rising, so we went down to breakfast together. As I passed by the senior table, I heard Liz say to Leo, "...and Abigail is 7.3 feet from the 8th grade table..." and I had to laugh. It was just like her to know every single thing about me, even those I don't know myself. It is partly her fault I'm here—not that I'm blaming her or anything! I'm extraordinarily grateful, but if she hadn't 'died', well that was Artemis's doing, so I guess this whole thing is her fault. Or the Fates'. Yeah, it'll be theirs.

Breakfast especially awkward because talk was all about the ball the night before. I purposefully avoided any and all questions having to do with it, and I thankfully saw Alex doing the same.

Liz came over to say that we would be leaving with Cammie around 10:30. "Alright, I'll go finish packing. Just give me a minute. I need to say goodbye to everyone." I whispered the last part, not wanting anyone else to hear. I said goodbye to Tanya, Hannah, and my other friends and then ran up to the room and joined Liz and Hazel in packing. At 10:30, we went outside, ready to depart and to show Cammie Festus and the Argo II.

I looked back at Cammie to see her reaction, but she only looked confused. I realized that the mortal, as incredible a mortal as she was, did not have true sight. Liz must have thought the same thing, because she pulled Cammie over to the ship.

"Cam, look up," said Percy. She did. "Now, tell me what you see."

"A flock of birds," she replied immediately.

Then Leo came in with his oh-so-helpful advice. "Cross your eyes until everything sorta blends together."

I rolled my eyes and said, "Sometimes find that if you just wait a while, it will come naturally." 

Disappointingly, that didn't work either, so Liz touched Cammie's temple and said, "It's our metal dragon, Festus. He is mostly bronze, but there is some gold and silver in his gears and face. His eyes are red lights."

Cammie was uncertain but still said, "I see him now."

"I had to place the image in your head," Liz explained. "Simple Mist manipulation in reverse. Now you should be able to see him clearly, am I right?"

'Ah, so that's how she did it,' I thought.

"Yes," she responded to Liz.

"Good. Now look directly in front of you. Do you see our warship?"

"Holy—How in the name of—? But..."

Leo grinned maniacally and said, "Welcome to seeing beyond the mortal realm, friend. Enjoy the sights as they really are."

"Oh my god... That apple tree over there has a face. And is that a cyclops at that café table? I always thought that was just a really big hawk of something...but is that a harpy?" I couldn't help it, I laughed. I remembered the point in my life where I thought everything was normal. I compare that life to my life now, and I'm not sure I would ever go back.

"Yep. Isn't it wonderful?" asked Hazel.

"It's amazing. And all this time I thought I was seeing..."

"Truth," I whispered, unsure if anyone had heard me.

"Well, time to set off on the rest of the quest!" Liz said, leading us onto the ship. "Leo, get us flying. Percy, if you don't mind checking on the horses? Frank...Hm...Can you check that nothing has snuck on board? Hazel, if you could show Cammie to her room. Carter, Abigail, I've just run out of things for you to do. I'm going to check on the engines and Buford the table.

As let down as I was about not being assigned a task, I knew that it wasn't because they didn't trust Carter and me or because we were useless. I knew that it was because, as the two non-spy mortals on board, we don't have much to give (actually, that's only me. Carter can use magic!!!). I went to my room and unpacked until Frank came into my room and said we were meeting in the mess hall. I followed him to the mess hall, hoping there'd be food, and was disappointed to find out there wasn't. I sat down at the end of the table across from Liz, as that was the only open seat. Feeling uncomfortable, I scooched over towards Hazel.

"So, to Camp Jupiter!" Liz started us off. "Here's the plan: by tomorrow, we'll be there. Because of that stupid exploding statue, we'll be parking the Argo outside of camp. We will hold a meeting where we negotiate the terms of alliance and when the big quest will occur..." A strong gust of wind cut her off, which wouldn't normally be a bad thing, except we were inside. Liz looked extremely unnerved by this. "Leo, has this happened before?"

"No..."

"Okay..."

Cater hesitated before asking, "I'm going to guess this is bad...?" When no one answered, everyone pulled out their weapon, except for Frank who turned into an eagle, and me who did nothing. Liz led us into the corridor and up the stairs onto the top deck. When we reached the top we realized what was wrong: they were on the ground, instead of the air. Looking up, we saw a...something.

"Ventus," Leo muttered.

"No, Leo, I don't care for an espresso." That was Liz. I get that her brain is wired a little differently than mine, but I was totally lost on the connection between coffee and something that was presumably an Ancient Greek monster. Then: "Oh dear Zeus."

'What? What is it?' I thought frantically. 'Oh, wait, NOW I remember what a ventus is.'

"What's a ventus?" asked Carter and Cammie.

"Trouble." This was probably the only time I've seen Leo serious and grave. "Venti. Evil espresso drinks of the sky, dear friends. Storm spirits. And storms aren't friendly."

"You should meet Set," commented Carter.

Liz next made a bold decision: "Let him in."

"You're going to regret that decision," promised Leo.

"Open the bloody force field and let him in, dam it!"

'Woah there, Lizzy. No need to get violent,' I thought.

"Alright," Leo said as he opened the door and the ventus rushed in and took human form.

After a moment, Liz said bitterly, "'And her first love will hold the score.' I was thinking it would be Alex."

"Yeah, nice to see you too," the ventus-person said.

'Who—Oh! Is that...'

"Evan. So tell us. Holding the score, what does that mean?"

"How inhospitable. Aren't you going to ask me to come in, sit down, and explain my coming?" I could tell he was trying to act innocent, but it wasn't working one bit.

"Tas," Carter said, and pink ribbons wrapped up Evan so he looked like a Breast-Cancer-Awareness mummy.

"Why are they pink?" cried the muffled mummy indignantly.

"Oh, how should I know?" replied Carter, exasperated.

Liz smiled. "Carry him down to the stables. He should be light as air."

"Very punny," commented Leo.

"I know, I'm hilarious."

They all walked down to the stables when Leo asked, "So can you, like, just have him bound at the feet, hands, and to the wall?"

"Eh," Carter said, waving his hand. The pink mummy disappeared and a shackled Evan took its place. 

"Thank you," said Evan.

"So, what's with the eagle?"

"It's Frank," replied Liz with an icy tone. "He's a shape shifter."

"What happens now?"

"We interrogate you," Cammie answered. "Well, at least I think we do...Do we, Liz?"

"Yes, we do. We might be slightly more than mortal and fly around in a giant warship, but when we capture and enemy, yes, we interrogate him."

"Good," I muttered under my breath.

"I'm not your enemy, Liz. I just have a bit of knowledge which holds a bit of power, that's all."

Leo snapped, "Who do you work for?"

"The Fates," replied Evan arrogantly.

"Ew," said Liz, looking disgusted. I understood her reasoning there; they've been out to get her as long as I've known her, probably longer. "Hate them, thusly must hate you. What is the score?"

He rose an eyebrow and looked the brat he was. "You mean," pause for effect, "this?" A purple ball of light, almost like plasma, appeared on his outstretched hand.

"The score is a literal, physical thing?" asked Percy, astonished.

"What does it do?" queried Hazel.

"It kind of holds the Fate of anyone who goes on this quest to places you don't know of yet," answer Evan slyly. "So, basically, I know your fate," he pointed at Leo, "and yours," to Percy, "your Fate," Frank and Hazel, "your fate," Carter and Cammie, "not sure about yours," he admitted grudgingly, gesturing towards me, "but YOURS, haha, oh I know YOURS." That last one was directed at Liz, who looked utterly confused.

"What's so funny about her Fate?" Percy snapped.

"She's done something, haha, knows someone." It was clear he was struggling to speak through his laughter, a problem I am all too familiar with, but I felt absolutely no sympathy for him. He was one of those irritating beings who just didn't deserve it. "Oh, she doesn't even know the mess she's made, the path of Fate she's chosen. Just as stupid as ever, even if Lady Artemis HAS given you four years of age."

"And just as capable of kicking you're a—" Liz retorted, cut off by Leo.

"Liz! DON'T SWEAR FOR ZEUS'S SAKE! Percy, I vote we make a swear jar and get rich." I chuckled, remembering the swear jar my mom had made my brother and me in the 4th grade.

"Guys, there is a ventus here," reminded Frank. "We can fix Liz's bad habit later, but right now we have an interrogation to complete."

"Fate is leverage," explained Liz. "Take it form a Seer. But, of course, Fate can be changed."

"No it can't!" screamed Evan. "Not yours at least! Everyone else, get out. Seems that me and Lizzy here need to have a chat about her Fate." The rest of us left, me giving Evan an ugly glower before finally shutting the door. I was going to try to listen at the door, because, hey, why can't I know? I'm an Oracle and her friend!

"Abigail, I wouldn't. Liz would want to tell us herself," murmured Percy.

"Fine. You can't hear anything through this thing anyways." We all went on deck and were staring at the ground fly by below us as Leo got us in the air again. Suddenly, Festus drove the ship down and we crashed into the ground. A cloud of soot rose up and covered us, and Leo ran to the room where Liz and Evan were talking. Leo brought Liz up to the deck a minute or two later, the rest of us trying to get something done.

"Liz!" I shouted at her. "Festus crashed into us when we started fall—" but Liz cut me off.

"Festus? My poor baby! Is the metal dragon okay?! Valdez, tell me Festus is okay! He is okay, right?" 

"I'm sure he's fine, it wasn't too bad. The Argo took more of the blow. We're going to need to stay overnight to repair the machinery though. You see, the main controls have..." Leo trailed off, realizing something. "We left the espresso drink—"

"Hey guys." Jerk.

"Liz, it was not very nice to choke me. At least allow me to explain why you can do that." I walked away from them, towards the rest of the group, helping, also eavesdropping enough so I could hear snippets of what Evan was saying. "...mother was from very ancient Greece...every god and goddess to give you a gift...Leo was such a big part of your destiny...All things that will hopefully be of help in the battle..." I tuned out, extremely confused and worried for my friend.

"So who is my mom?" I heard Liz ask. I couldn't hear Evan's reply though, because we all saw something—or was that someone?—on the ground, looking not-so-friendly.

"Liz?" Carter started. "I think that there's something, someone, down there. And I don't think they're friendly." We locked Evan back up and disembarked, to find an empty field. "I swear they were here, Liz."

"I believe you, Carter which is exactly why I'm—" what she was going to say, well we'll never know, because she was cut off by a metallic CLANK!

"Oh, mother hugs!" exclaimed an irritated voice.

'Oh, mother hugs? ...Interesting.'

Liz and Leo walked cautiously towards a rock. A girl in Greek battle armor jumped out from behind the rock, and, waving her sword like a mad woman, yelled, "Stay back." They took a BIG step back.

At this point I was able to look at our attacker. She was a few inches taller than me (but then again, who wasn't? I'm 5'1 for gods' sake!) with long, blond-ish hair. I couldn't tell her eye color from the distance, but I saw them shimmering with a combination of fear, anger, and curiosity. She was obviously a warrior, but her face was a kind one. I could definitely tell she was pretty, even if she wasn't really my type.

Then Leo embarrassed himself by saying, "Hey there, I'm Leo. And you are?"

"The name's Holly. Don't flirt. I'm an Amazon, and you're inferior," the girl, Holly, replied fiercely. You know, if this whole Oracle thing doesn't work out, an Amazon would be a pretty awesome fallback.

Liz started coughing to cover up her laughing, (I don't blame her, I was stifling my laughter behind my hand) and said, "Smooth, fireboy."

He replied with, "Oh, don't worry, fish princess. There's a lot more skilled flirting saved just for you." 

'Really Leo? Flirting? Now??'

"Really, flirting, is that necessary right now guys?" Percy asked, sounding quite exasperated. "I think we should be more focused on the Amazon, don't you?"

"Ignore the boys," Liz said with an eye roll. "We kind of, um, crash-landed here...See, we're demigods, a magician, a spy, and well, a mortal who has some not very mortal abilities." I smiled a little at my introduction. I had never really thought of it that way before. "My name is Liz Jackson."

Holly moved quickly, ending up with her sword at Liz's throat and her other arm holding Liz's abdomen. "Liz Jackson. We have been expecting you." Not a good sign, especially coming from an Amazon. Except, it wasn't coming from Holly. 5 other Amazon warriors came out from behind rocks. The voice belonged to one of them, but I couldn't tell who.

Percy groaned and said, "Liz, you don't just politely introduce yourself to armed strangers."

'Really? What do you think diplomacy's for? It worked in Star Wars, didn't it? Well, kinda anyways.' 

"Thanks, dear Perseus, next time I'll keep that in mind!" She slipped her hand into the pocket that held Great Warrior, her sword. She flipped the silver drachma in the air, elbowed Holly in the stomach, caught her now-transformed-sword, disarmed Holly, caught that sword, then pointed them both at the other girl. I had to stifle yet another smile. No matter how good the Amazons were at fighting, Liz would always be better.

Holly looked shocked. "I was NOT expecting that... You fight well."

"Not too bad yourself, Miss Holly." Liz returned the captured sword and said, "No why don't we talk peacefully?"

Holly smiled and said, "Fine by me," and then she and Liz shook hands. "Right this way, Ms. Jackson. We've got quite a bit to talk about." Liz started to follow Holly, but not before the Amazon added, "Oh, but other than the madman, everyone else stays." So Holly, Liz, and Leo walked behind the rock and disappeared, with the other 5 warriors following close behind.

After an awkward moment of silence, Percy said, "So, let's get this baby back in the air!" Turns out without Annabeth, Leo, or Liz, no one knew anything about the ship or Festus, or how to repair them. So we went back to our individual rooms (after a week and a half of sharing it with 2 other girls, it was nice being able to spread out again) and unpacked or read or drew or whatever we wanted to do. I didn't have much left, so I had plenty of time to mull over what Evan had said about my Fate. I mean, sure, I'm a possible-future-Oracle, but that shouldn't prevent others, especially one who works for the Fates themselves, to figure out what I was destined to do. I mean, form what I heard between him and Liz, she's from Ancient Greece AND a Seer, but he still knows everything about her! Maybe it's just because he knew her previously? Or because she's the leader? But what makes me so special? It's like Liz said, I suppose. I'm a mortal with very non-mortal-like abilities. Kinda. Really only just the occasional seeing-the-future-thing. And she said earlier that Fates can be changed. But can they really be changed so dramatically, going from "Oh-hey-you-don't-have-a-future" to "Well-now-you-do"? Oh well, like Annabeth said in The Last Olympian, "You know prophecies always have double meanings. It might not literally mean you die." So yeah, just because he can't foresee my future doesn't mean I don't have one, right?

 

Liz got back an hour or so later and told me that she wasn't going to be at dinner tonight. She was going to be on a date. But not with Leo, oh no, with Holly. It surprised me a little at first, but after I got over the shock of going on a date with someone you literally just met, I was cool with it. "Well, I'll be going as long as Percy lets me," she added. I laughed, "Why shouldn't he? You'll be fine. Have fun!"

 

That night I read some of my books. Oh how I had missed them. I hadn't really had much time to read them at Gallagher because of all the stress and work expected of me. As much as I loved it, I really had missed my novels.

After falling asleep, I dreamt about me spouting the super-long, super-important prophecy like usual, but it was different this time. Instead of the dream ending when I passed out, it continued. Except this wasn't a dream about me or Liz or anyone on the Argo II. This one was about Andrew. I immediately felt bad because I had barely give him a single thought since saying goodbye. It had been almost a month since I left, he had no way of knowing if I was alive or dead, and yet here he was, still defending me and keeping his promise.

"Guys, I swear! I don't know where she is either! I want to find her just as much as you. Tell Sarah—" Oh gods. Sarah. I hadn't talked to her in over a month. She must be frantic. I need to find a way to get in contact with her somehow. My phone's long dead and broken, and even if it weren't, it would attract too many monsters. I'll have to talk to Liz about it when she gets back... "—the same thing." He turned to a figure huddled in a corner. I realized with a jolt that it was she. She was crying, still, after a month, and I could feel my heart breaking. I had to talk to my best friend.


	8. Off to Meet Some Romans (and Adventures)

The next morning I woke up hoping to talk to Liz, but Cammie told me that she, Frank, and Hazel had already disembarked for New Rome. I ate breakfast and got ready for the day, trying to come up with a solution to my newest predicament. It came to me, so obvious I didn't know why I hadn't thought of it before. I just would have to do it without Liz's guidance.

I knocked on Percy's door and, when he told me to come in, asked, "Do you have any drachmas perchance?" He seemed to read my thoughts and gave me a handful, also conjuring up a rainbow.

"Take your time."

I took a deep breath, tossed a drachma into the rainbow and said, "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Show me Sarah Rennes in Novi, Michigan." As I waited for Iris, or most likely Fleecy, to connect the call, I realized how incredibly rash this whole thing was.

"Abby?" Oh gods.

"Hey, Sarah." I couldn't get much farther before both of us broke down. "Hey, i-it's okay. I'm okay. Even Alex is okay. I'm really sorry I couldn't talk to you before; my phone is dead, broken, and long gone."

"I-i-it's okay. What is this thing anyways?"

"So you know Percy Jackson? Well, it's true. All of it. And this is their form of communication. It's called an Iris message."

"Does that mean you're coming back?" I could hear the desperation in her voice. I wanted to respond yes. Oh how I did. But I couldn't bring myself to make that big of a lie.

"Oh, Sarah, I wish I could! But right now I'm in California—I'll explain—and there might be problems. But I swear on the River Styx—that's a binding contract—that I will see you again. I promise. Okay?"

Her face loosened a little and replied. "Okay. But why are you in California?" I explained why, leaving out the part about Liz Jackson being Liz Noel, and then talked about her life in Novi since I left.

"Sarah?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you." And I did. Not in a romantic way, but in a pure, platonic, we've-been-best-friends-for-12-years way.

Crying now, she said, "I love you too."

With both of our hearts well and truly broken, I ended the call. After taking a few minutes to compose myself (okay, more like 5. Or 10. Or maybe even possibly 20), I again recited the calling of Iris, this time substituting "Andrew Schuler" instead of "Sarah Rennes". He was concentrated on his homework apparently, and so didn't notice my face appearing in front of him. "Andrew!" I hissed.

"What—Abby!" The look on his face couldn't have been any more different than Sarah's. His was full of pure joy and relief.

"Hi." I smiled and waved a little.

"Good God! How are you still alive?"

I laughed and answered, "I actually have no idea. Anyways, I'm alive (obviously) and right now in California with Liz."

"So you found her?"

"Yeah, we met up in Pennsylvania thanks to Hades, and—"

"Wait, Hades? Like, Hades the Greek god?"

"Yeah. Oh I need to catch you up on everything. So we met in Pennsylvania, went to Virginia for a week-ish, stopped in Oklahoma after we crashed, then came here."

"Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. You mean the Greek and Roman gods actually exist??"

"And the Egyptian ones! Isn't it amazing? All these characters are ACTUALLY REAL, Andrew!"

He laughed. "Well I know how much you love your books..."

"Yeah. Oh! And um, thanks for keeping your promise," I said really fast, a blush creeping up.

"How do you—oh, right, dream visions. And of course! Anything for you. So what were you doing in Virginia?"

"We visited the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young People. Yes, it's another fictional-but-actually-real thing. I got to go to school with geniuses! It was awesome! Well, except for the fact that Alex also goes there..." I muttered the last sentence, half-hoping he wouldn't hear.

"What? That _________. Do I need to come and kill him for you?"

"No, we're, well, not good, exactly, but not trying to kill each other. Most of the time anyways. Besides, he's not with us, he's still at Gallagher."

"Andrew?"

Oh, crap, that'd be my mom. I need to go. Don't wait this long until you message me again, alright?"

"I'll try. And if you think this was just a dream or something, ask Sarah. I Iris-messaged her too. Just don't tell her about Liz being alive...she thinks it's a different Liz I'm with. That would be...confusing."

"Okay, thanks."

"Bye."

"Bye. Stay safe!" It certainly felt nice to talk to Andrew, he always has a way of cheering me up, no matter how I down I felt.

At lunch the rest of the crew and I went to eat at the pavilion, where Liz, Frank, Hazel, and Reyna were. I sat down on cushions next to Hazel (who I LOVE to sit next to—she was extremely calming. Not to mention Frazel was one of my OTPs) and wind spirits immediately brought me a plate piled high with samosas. I sighed, I loved Indian food and it had been forever since I had had any. And I just loved samosas. I dug in, enjoying the feeling of my mouth set on fire.

"What's that?" Hazel asked.

"Samosas."

"What're those?"

"Only the best food ever to be created! Inside these pockets of bread-dough-thing there's a stuffing with a ton of delicious spicy goodness. It's Indian."

"Can I try one?" Frank leaned over and grabbed one, stuffing the whole thing in his mouth (if you've never had samosas, I would NOT recommend doing that).

I laughed as he grabbed a glass of water and nearly drowned trying to extinguish the figurative flames crawling up his throat. "I told you it was spicy!"

After lunch, they introduced me to Dakota, the other centurion (Hazel was the first) of the Fifth Cohort, where we would be staying.

The next morning I dressed in a t-shirt and jeans (like usual) and wore one of my many sweatshirts over top. I really love sweatshirts. Especially on crisp November days like today (the 3rd). I ate breakfast with some Apollo kids, who were very interested in the new Great Prophecy.

The wind spirits whisked a plate of the most amazing blueberry pancakes over to me as a daughter of Apollo, who introduced herself as Ally Smith, started talking. "So, what do you know about this new Great Prophecy?"

"Not too much, to be honest," I admitted, swallowing the enormous bite I had just taken. Then, being me, I started choking. Everyone looked really nervous, but I assured them, after regaining my breath, that this was perfectly normal. "I just know it has to with Liz because, well, Liz."

One of Ally's sisters laughed and agreed, "Enough said, right?"

"Yeah. She's really awesome and I'm glad I know her."

"And here she comes." I turned around and, sure enough, saw her walking towards our table with Carter and Cammie.

"Abigail! You might want to come to the meeting with us. Seeing as you've recently been living a normal, mortal life, you're input will be most vital."

"Sure thing! And are you sure about the normal part?" Nonetheless, I got up and followed her. As interesting as the daughters of Apollo were, I had not quite lost my fear of other people. We walked up to the praetor's table where Reyna, Hazel, and Frank were waiting.

Reyna led us to a room and asked Liz, "Why is the moral coming with us?" My shoulders automatically tense. I knew no one meant any disrespect, but I wasn't just the moral, or Blondie, I had an actual name.

"As she still remembers what it was like to be a mortal in the unseeing world, I made a call of judgement and decided her opinion would be necessary for the completion of this operation. Do you agree?" Liz snapped in return.

"Of course not," was Reyna's terse answer. My head swiveled back and forth between like an interesting tennis match, trying to determine the victor.

There weren't enough seats since Reyna was only expecting , so I stood in the corner, not saying anything, unsure if there would be any place on Earth I could actually fit in. I was such a jumble of stereotypes and personalities, no matter where I went I was the odd one out. I was a blonde girl who hated shopping, loved school, was slightly smarter than your average bear, loved sports but was awful at them, felt like an Indian, and was a generally anti-social and socially awkward person. In other words, I'm the blonde, nerd, jock, Indian wallflower. And don't forget that I wear black and like rock music. So yeah, I really don't fit in anywhere.

Liz broke the ever-increasing awkward silence. "We are gathered here today because of a prophecy. You have all heard by now the one that goes, 'Daughter of wisdom and of sea, shall bring alliance unto thee...' and so on. But there is a total of 3 prophecies we need to attempt to partially decipher before we can make a plan of action for fighting whatever it is in the years to come."

"Three?" repeated Carter. "Oh, jeez. I hate when things are foretold. It makes it very difficult to continue with life knowing someone has already written your ending."

'And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of Percy Jackson's life.'

"Welcome to my everyday life," replied Liz, annoyed. "Anyway, the first prophecy of Love and Chaos in its fullest: 'Five thousand years then the girls shall waken, their fates to save civilization; the difference between them hard to tell, they lead their army into hell; one will be slaughtered by Chaos's hand, the girl of prophecy to take high command; daughter of wisdom and of sea shall bring alliance unto thee; monsters rule within their world, but they will bring peace for once and all; and she will love the son of flame, their romance will be Chaos's bane; the world will see the endless light, when the free the daughter of the Night; the protector's death will bring much sorrow, that love that saved the world running out of tomorrows.' That monstrosity is courtesies of Aphrodite."

'Aphrodite? Is it possible she's not all fluffy pink hearts? She actually has a brain that's used for things other than love? Well, I guess this is kinda about love, in a way. Actually, a lot of things are.'

"Next is the prophecy that shaped this whole quest: 'From joining with the 21 Nome, across the land to New Rome; they'll form an army for the war, and her first love will hold the score.' The last part is really the most confusing about that one. I know who holds the score, but I have absolutely no clue what it does.

"Anyways, the final one is about the savior of nature. 'The savior of nature shall be found; she will be sobbing on the ground; her footsteps running did not make a sound; she leaped streams with gentle bounds.' I really have no clue what that means, besides the point that's how I met Grover and Juniper...But do any of you know what the 'savior of nature' is supposed to be?"

My first thought was that she would be this 'savior of nature'. It fit after all, she was the one it was told to. But no one else had any ideas, so I just mulled over the first prophecy, as that was the one that was most confusing.

Carter asked, "The first prophecy...say it again?" as she did, my mind ran over the lines of 'one will be slaughtered by Chaos' hand...' and 'the protector's death will bring much sorrow...' From what the crew had filled me in on, Liz was presumably this protector. If so, then...

'No. it won't happen. It can't. It's...Liz. Invulnerable, invincible, incredible Liz.' I managed to squeak out a whisper, "So basically you're going to die...?"

"Yeah..." There it was. That dreaded answer. The one that everyone hated to hear. I was blinking away tears as she continued, "And then you guys get to hand out with my super-fabulous, practically twin sister!" Liz was trying so hard to make that sound enticing, but honestly, I didn't need it. "Look, I've never met her, but I've see her in plenty of visions. She seems pretty kick a*s if you ask me. She...she's called the girl with no name. I don't know if she actually has a name, but that's how I know her." Cammie looked fully at her, as if stripping Liz of every layer she's put up, until finally getting down to the literal heart of who she is.

"The girl Leo was with," Carter said, "I saw her. That was your sister? Have you told him? You probably should. I would not want to be caught between sisters if I were him... That would be awkward!"

'No, really? Of course it would be, Carter!'

"He isn't caught between sisters," she snapped defensively. "It's not like that with me and Leo. Gods of Olympus and Egypt—"

My eyebrows shot up. "Oh my," Reyna muttered.

"—I have known Leo Valdez for about 2 months," Liz continued. "If you would cease the firm belief that somethings is between us!"

We all kept quiet, half afraid of setting her off again, until Reyna added, "The point is the prophecies. I think the major one is most important, and all we need is to know how we're supposed to form an army, who of, where we need to go, etc."

All of a sudden I felt really dizzy, as if all the blood was rushing to my head or everyone was staring at me (gods, I absolutely abhor it when they do that). Soon enough, the dizziness dissipated, only to be replaced with total darkness and the sensation of falling, falling into a bottomless abyss.

I sat up quickly, my heart beating wildly. I looked around and found myself in a hospital-looking room with a bunch of people running around. I recalled what had happened and realized that I had said the prophecy (was it really a prophecy though? It made a difference) about the Ancient Times. Wow, it had felt really weird, as though I had had the Imperius curse put on me or something equally strange.

Suddenly, my memory flashed back to the first day of 8th grade: Liz texting me "Hey, Oracle". Could that really be what's happening? I had always denied it, but it seems to becoming a very real possibility. It does seem particularly Rachel-ish. And then I remembered what she had said just before I was "possessed". She had said that she was going to DIE. Well, that obviously can't be true...right?

'No, Abigail. Stop it. Stop obsessing over things that are out of your control.'

And so I thought about the beginning of 7th grade and Liz, but after I had gotten to know her some and gotten over that moronic jolt of jealousy. We talked about Percy Jackson and Gallagher Girls. We had even started our own CoveOps program! Not that it had experienced much other than the all-mysterious topic of boys.

After I realized how stupid I was being, I realized why I had been jealous. This new girl Liz was amazing! She was unique and different, and proud of it, and I was drawn to her courage. She wasn't afraid of anything. Nope, not Liz. She was also incredibly smart, even if people couldn't see it. Not to mention she was super nice! How can anyone ever be that awesome?

The opening of a door snapped me out of my reverie. "O'Meara!" Liz! "What happened???" Wow, she must be even more freaked out than I was.

"I don't know," I admitted cautiously (wow, I'd been saying that with more and more frequency lately). "I think that it might've been something like a god talking through me? That's happened before to others..." 'Like Rachel,' my brain said. 'Shut up, me,' I replied. Then I realized how long she must've been waiting for me instead of carrying on with the meeting. "Look, that's not the point. The point is that you know where you're going for your quest. You can carry on the meeting for a while without me, okay? I'll be back as soon as they allow me."

Turns out "they" wouldn't let me go for quite a while. The descendants of Asclepius (or was it Hygeia or some other healing god/goddess?) wouldn't let me leave until the next morning "to make sure I was okay". Yeah right they just wanted to hear what happened. 50 times. EACH.

They only let me go in the morning because (a) it was time for breakfast, and (b) I said I would most likely be leaving soon. I got there and saw Liz, so I sat a few seats away from her. I didn't pay attention to what I was eating—presumably some form of food, I wasn't really sure—and waved at Liz when she looked at me.

After breakfast, we had to go into New Rome for a Senate meeting. No, not the boring ones we have in the US. I'm talking about the boring ones they had in Ancient Rome, like where Caesar was assassinated. There they would decide whether or not to be nice and help us.

When we got to the Pomerian Line, the god-bust (Terneus? Teareyus? Terminus, that's it) looked at me and asked, "Well? Do you have any weapons?" Next to him, a little girl was holding out a bin.

"I don't know. Does this require me to be a quadriplegic?" I asked innocently.

"Insolent mortal. What are you even doing here with them? You're young and a mortal," he taunted.

"She's with me," Reyna replied tightly, gripping me by the arm and dragging me across. Then she turned her death glare to me. "What were you thinking? Messing with a god?? Honestly."

"Sorry, ma'am," I replied instantly, straightening up. We walked towards the Senate building, across the town, me rubbing my arm a little. As we walked through New Rome, I realized that I could hear Liz's thoughts, a faint murmur in the back of my mind. Slightly nervous, I relaxed when I heard what she was thinking.

'Why do people always say 'Rome did it'?! Rome fell!!' I had to agree with her. But as we walked further into the city, we came to the same conclusion: Rome never fell; it just moved and updated, like Olympus.

When we got in, Reyna announced Liz, and Liz explained about the prophecy of Love and Chaos. Thankfully, we had a large majority vote. They would help.


	9. Prophecies of Death and Beauty

The morning after the Senate meeting (which I was thankfully able to avoid passing out in), we departed Camp Jupiter. After we got onto Argo II we all ate breakfast in the Mess Hall, discussing the plan.

"So, to the Gallagher Academy, I presume?" Leo asked, starting the conversation. "I've already told Festus that's where he ought to take us, so I certainly hope that's where we intend to go..."

"Yes," Liz replied, nodding, "we're going to take Cammie back home and invite Zach Bex, and Alex to come with us in the summer. After that we will go to the 21 Nome and drop off Carter. We will tell Zia, Sadie, and Walt about the quest and then take Felix and Alexis to Camp Half-Blood with us, where we can begin our own planning. Each of us leaders must establish a system in our homelands to protect it while we're gone. We will need someone to take our own place, and then set up our own armies," she continued. "Each group is a subsection, so they will need their own ranks and whatnot. Training begins immediately. This is war."

'Wow, Lizzy,' I thought. 'Way to keep it light.'

Percy managed to shut her up by placing his hand over her moth and speaking over her muffled protests, "Nice pep talk, Liz, but really, try to keep it a bit light-hearted. We have over half a year until this all takes place. I agree training needs to be taken very seriously in the months leading up to the quest, but come on. Don't be such a pessimist."

"So that's how you shut her up then?" Leo laughed. "Teach me your ways, oh son of the sea god."

Liz removed Percy's hand and smacked Leo. "Just because I'm quiet doesn't mean I can't severely injure you. If I'm silent, be afraid."

Carter added, "If she's speaking, be afraid. If she's armed, be afraid. If she's unarmed, be afraid. If she's just been rendered unconscious by a 200-lb. brick, be afraid. The real point here is to be afraid of Liz Jackson."

I couldn't help agreeing with him, recalling all of the experiences where Liz has kicked butt, regardless of the situation.

Cammie smiled. "When the youngest girl on the quest is the most terrifying."

My forehead scrunched together in confusion until suddenly it dawned on me. "Oh my gods, I AM older than you, aren't i? I mean, from birth... Forget the time skip or whatever it was that happened to you. Haha, I keep forgetting. Well, I guess all technicalities included, you're older than me, aren't you? By, like, five thousand years..."

Out of everything that has been happening in the past few months, this has to have been the most confusing. Not the age-skip, not the mythological parts, not even the resurrecting-death part. No, this has got to be the weirdest. If you asked me 3 months ago, I would've said, no hesitation, "Oh, I'm 46 days older than her." Now, however, it's more like "Uhmmm...I'm not sure...I think she's something like four or five thousand years older than me. Plus 4 years so..."

Liz was rubbing her temples in confusion, muttering, "I don't even know my own age anymore."

"Fish princess, you get more confusing by the hour. I like that about you. You all get some breakfast. I'm going to get washed up for the day."

After breakfast we all went up to our individual rooms and unpacked once again. Finishing in a relatively short span of time, I put in some music, cello (that's a string instrument for all you orchestral neophytes), and just stared at the wall, thinking about life, the quest, Liz, Sarah, Andrew, Alex, back to the meaning of life, chocolate, when a cavernous pit materialized all around me.

Below me (I was in the air, looking down), I could see 15 young people. I knew instinctually they were Liz and 14 of the quest members, although I couldn't identify them by sight. Expanding my vision, I spotted three people, chained, agonizingly just out of reach of each other. A man, breezy-looking with windswept hair and eyes that were constantly moving about, a woman with eyes that sparkled like the night sky and limp black hair, and another woman, slightly younger than the other two, truly a beauty. This woman was the type of person who you would never get tired of looking at, so incredible lovely she was...lovely! This must be Love, along with her parents, Night and Wind.

Even more prominent in this landscape, however, was the woman, if you could even call her that, facing Liz. As hard as I tried, I could never focus on her face and body; it's like where your eyes go out of focus and everything is blurry. Except I couldn't blink my vision back into clarity. And then I realized how extremely terrifying she was. Trying to concentrate on her gave me such a raging headache, worse than anything I've ever had, as though the different lobes of my brain were locked in mortal combat.

I managed to look back at Liz, who was talking to the terrifying being. She—it—must have been angered, and leapt out and struck Liz down. Hardly touching her, it had exerted such an immense store of power that Liz lay on the ground, her life so sapped even I could see it.

With tears in my eyes, I glimpsed Leo running to Liz, then looked at the woman with such a deep loathing, it is only a wonder nothing burst into flames. He went to run at her, but Liz grabbed his wrist, weak as she was. "Valdez. Tell Percy I love him, if you will," she managed to croak out. Not long after, she fell limp, never to move again.

Another girl appeared from the shadows. So like Liz, yet so different. Colder, harsher, harder. Her hair was different too, a stark black and choppy. It was cut short to above her shoulders, but not as short as mine. With her was a boy, also with the all-absorbing black hair and eyes like a cloudy day—not quite blue but neither was it fully grey. And he was pale. Paler than Nico even. As white as snow, but not as beautiful. He looked grey, like a decaying skeleton. The girl walked up to the woman, but before she could reach her, an army rose up and attacked those questing. All was not lost, as the girl had an army of her own.

Everything was so chaotic that I had no way of making out what happened. Not to mention the tears flowing down my face were quite the obstruction to clear view.

Next were two gravestones. The girl was kneeling before them, looking grave. The two names. They made me choke. The first one, 'Alexander Perry'. The next, however, that was the one that I shall never forget: 'Elizabeth Nicole Jackson. Hero to the very end.' There were old, wilted roses on the two graves, the girl replacing them with new, beautiful flowers.

I came up behind her then, except it almost wasn't me. It was a me who was older and much thinner, sorrowful, nothing like the happy 13 year old I once was. I lay my hand on her shoulder and bowed by head. Looking from afar, I knew this scene would have been a beautiful ending to a heroic movie. But it doesn't end until the fat lady sings.

Enter Leo, in Liz's room, rifling through old drawings and stories. A ghost of a smile was on his face when the girl walked in, murmuring, "Leo..."

Instead of talking civilly he started screaming her. "HOW COULD YOU?! YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HER! WHY DO YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST...COME HERE AND IT'LL BE ALL RIGHT?? IT'S YOUR FAULT SHE'S DEAD AND YOU COME IN HERE AND TRY TO TALK TO ME?! LEAVE!"

She turned away, eyes glistening with the tears that refused to fall. Her foretold love for him was so great, and he destroys it all. There would be no happy ending for this fairytale couple.

Leo, tears in his eyes as well, sat down at the cherished laptop of Lizzy Jackson. Up came the top and stories were read. At one, he paused longer than usual. I read it, over his shoulder, and burst into tears once more. On it was a detailed description of the death of a boy. A boy aged 13 with beautiful brown eyes. Oh gods. No. Not this.

The brown-eyed boy looks and sees the girl with red hair. An attacker, one of Catherine's men, come to claim all the glory for himself, is sneaking up behind her, unseen. The boy sees him. "Liz!" She whips around, pistol in hand. Without hesitation she fires. But the man has a shield, the boy sees. The girl does not. She turns from her attacker, thinking him finished, her bullet bouncing off the shield, imbued with magic.

The boy's eyes follow the bullet until his own chest is obstructing the view. Confused, he feels the hole, just above his heart, his life force spurting from the wound the chunk of metal has made. The girl turns, a look of grave concentration turning into horror as she takes in the picture of the boy standing there. "Alex!"

But the boy doesn't hear her, his vision is blurring, the world titling, and it is too late. The brown boy's love for the red girl is staining his shirt, her hands, as he takes one last look at the girl he loved so much.

The vision ended there, leaving me a crying, sniffling mess. A gentle knock on the door startled me back into reality. I cleaned myself up as much as possible and opened the door Liz was there with a concerned look on her face. Not the person I want to see at the present time. "Liz. Oh. Hi."

"Abby...Are you okay?" it sounded like a stupid question. We both knew it was a stupid question. "Did you have a vision or something?"

I didn't trust my voice to work properly, so I only nodded in the affirmative.

"Tell me about it."

We sat down on my bed and I began. "You were with fourteen of the other fifteen people who are supposed to be coming on the major quest, and it appeared you were in a dark pit. There were 3 people chained just out of reach of one another—2 women and a man. But the one you were facing was...terrifying. She had no definite face, no definite shape, she just kept changing and it was giving me a headache to watch.

"You were talking to her, but before anything else could happen, she lashed out and...her power was so great that barely touching you, you fell to the ground, dying. And Leo, poor Leo, he ran to you and looked back at the woman with rage in his face. Before he did anything stupid you...grabbed his hand and you just...started laughing. Not insane, just a pure, humorous laugh. And you said to him, 'Valdez, tell Percy I love him, if you will.' And you went limp shortly afterwards.

"Another girl came out of the shadows with a boy who had black hair, blue-grey eyes, and looked like he never saw the sunlight. The girl looked so much like you, but her eyes were colder, her face harder, and her hair was choppy, black and short. She briskly greeted the woman who had killed you before an army rose up out of the ground. The army began attacking the questers, but reinforcements came in from behind the girl. It was an intense battle scene that I didn't really witness... After that, I couldn't really tell what was going on until it got to the girl kneeling before two tombstones.

"The names..." Here I paused, my breath becoming ragged. I took a deep breath and continued. "They read 'Elizabeth Nicole Jackson' and 'Alexander Perry'. The girl was replacing old, wilted roses with fresh, bright, new flowers. And an older version of myself was there as well. I had my hand on the girl's shoulder, but I don't know why we seemed to be so close.

"After that I saw Leo going through your things. He looked like he'd been crying, but right then he was almost smiling as he flipped through sketchbooks and notebooks and pictures. The girl came through the door and murmured his name, but rather than answering her peacefully, he started yelling. I think he blamed her for your death, and he looked outraged that she should dare attempt talking to him. She looked so massively taken aback as she turned out of the room, holding back tears.

"He started looking at your laptop, going through the little things you'd written, until he found a piece that described the death of a boy who fit the description of Alex. It was rather emotional to read, but just to think something should happen to both you and Alex, I just...." I trailed off, staring at Liz, imploringly.

"I won't die." It sounded too fast, but it cheered me up slightly all the same. "I promise you that I will not die. There's always a way to cheat death. I swear to Styx I will do everything in my power to keep that from happening."

"And what about Alex?" As much of a jerk he is, I can't help but still care for him, even just a little.

"If I can find a way to save him, I'll do it. I still love him you know. But this bloody age difference has made it impossible to be with him. Besides...I can never tell him that I'm really Liz Noel. If he found out that I really survived and these past couple of months he spent grieving were all a lie, I can only imagine how outraged he would be."

'Not to mention he might try and make up with me. Or get mad at me for "not telling him".'

"I can only imagine how badly it would hurt to think you've lost someone you loved and cared deeply about, just to find out two months later that you were being lied to, and the truth was they were alive and well. The betrayal, where all you could hear inside your head is 'Why did nobody tell me?!'"

'I did tell him, Lizzy. Or at least, I tried to.'

"It's better if he doesn't know... Look, I know you also care about him, and I will stop at nothing to keep him safe. I don't know how but I'll save him."

"He's kind of a jerk, to be completely honest with you, but I still care about his well-being, you know what I mean?"

"Yes, I can completely understand. He's a jerk, but he's a jerk we like, so we'd like to keep him alive." We both smiled at that, silently agreeing to what she had said.

"Exactly!" She pulled me into a hug. After what I had just seen, it was a miracle I ever let go. I was not going to lose her a second time.


	10. A New Home

At lunch I noticed Leo trying to catch Liz's attention—not very surprising—but Liz was blushing a really bright red. Now this was weird. "So my estimate is that we will be back to the Gallagher Academy in about two days. The next day we'll be at the 21 Nome, and should get back to Camp Half-Blood later that day. Sound like a plan, everyone?" That was Liz, addressing the rest of the crew.

Dinner was very interesting. I caught Liz and Carter having a silent conversation, so, being me, I couldn't help butting in.

Liz: Do you think that it's something bigger than just Greeks or Romans or Egyptians or spies bringing us together?

Carter: Well, of course. It couldn't be just one, then there would be favoritism. But what could it possibly be?

Liz (shaking her head): Something more ancient than all of us. Remember what Abigail said? That we weren't just facing one enemy? Well, maybe whoever brought us together is more like whatever we all have in common. But what is that?

The mention of my name and prophecies was practically an invitation to join, so I interrupted with: Just think about your crew. There's at least one couple from each group. And you all have legends. Love before Chaos, Love causing Chaos, Love creating an empire, Love tearing civilizations apart, Love pulling a strong woman away from what she enjoyed back to her home over seas...

As I finished my little monologue, Liz and Carter both realized: Love is bringing us together because Chaos...

And then all 3 of us thought of the lines of Phanes: "This is a war of Love and Chaos." And suddenly everything became clear.

Liz quickly excused herself and left the room, leaving Carter and I to give each other quizzical glances.

So scared I was about having another dream vision, I never allowed myself the luxury of sleep that night. Around 6 am, as my eyes were involuntarily drifting closed, I heard a little voice in the back of my head. Now, this isn't all that unusual, since I'm always talking (and usually arguing) with myself, but this one was different. Almost...godly. Now don't get me wrong, I know what it feels like to have the Oracle of Delphi speak through me, and this wasn't it. It almost seemed like a female Sorting Hat was speaking to me.

"Hm...Abigail...I have been wanting to do you, but will you let me? No matter, the real question is, what is the best look for you? Well, they've already seen you dressed up like a princess..." My brain sent up a billion red flags. I knew who this was. I dearly hoped I was wrong.

My eyes snapped open. I glanced down at my body and saw a floor-length black skirt with a sheer blue button-up and black tank top underneath. I raced to the bathroom and sighed in relief. Thank the gods she had decided to go easy on me. I wore a little makeup—not too much—and, to my delight, my hair refused to frizz for once in my life. My nails were also done, a shimmering blue to match my outfit. I had also gained a new pair of glasses, two contrasting shades of blue that made me look older.

In the Mess Hall for breakfast I looked around and found everyone else in a similar state. The spy was wearing her old school uniform, lavender this time, while Percy looked uncomfortable in his dress shirt and slacks. Leo wore a leather jacket, only annoyed as this had happened before. Carter had on a similar outfit to Percy's, but looked slightly more comfortable in it.

"Compliments of my dear patron. Sorry about her." That was Liz, whose voice entered the room before she had a chance to. She wore a cute knee-length brown dress and shawl, with some leather boots to match. Her hair was straight and redyed and she had makeup around her eyes. Her nails were done too—some sort of manicure it looked like.

"Alright, everyone, we'll be arriving at the Gallagher Academy tomorrow, which is when we will make the proposal to the other spies to join us on the great quest in June," our great leader began. "The day after that, we will do likewise at the 21 Nome, and then take the two demigods to Camp Half-Blood the same day. Apologies for the makeovers, as given by my patron. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a plan with the devil to consider, and a very important...research task to perform for the goddess of love." Based on a glance around the room, I was the only one who had an inkling of what this "plan with the devil" might contend to. As for the "research" for Aphrodite, I had no idea.

A couple hours later, before we made it to Roseville, Cammie invited me into her rom. "Here, take a seat. Now, tell me. Have you thought about our request that you come back? We would love, no, not just love—we truly need you with us, Abigail. You have talents that are rare, and we can teach you to use them, if you wish."

I gaped, wide-eyed, at the woman. Cammie Morgan, headmistress to one of the coolest schools ever, was asking me—ME!—personally if I wanted to go to her school. Since my body is just determined to humiliate me as much as possible, my voice decided to stop working, so I sat there with my mouth wide open looking not unlike a dumb goldfish (who would most likely not be accepted into Gallagher).

She continued. "As I'm sure you've realized by now, war is upon us. And I'm fairly certain the other side would love to have you, with all your gifts."

I blushed a deep red and managed to find my voice. "Th-thanks. A LOT. I definitely want to come—" I was smiling now, probably looking like an idiot, "—but I think Liz wants to show me Camp Half-Blood first. We both feel like it's important that I go there. I hope you don't mind? I hope I'll be able to come for freshman year, definitely."

"Oh no, not at all! We'd love to have you, anytime." We stood up and shook hands. I walked out of the room, absolutely ecstatic. I was going to be a Gallagher girl!

After our brief visit in Roseville (Bex, Alex, and Zach were all quick to comply) we made our way to Brooklyn, NYC. As we got there around 9 in the morning, Liz, Carter, Percy, Leo, and I sat on the balcony, providing us with a stunning view of the morning sky. Brilliant blue with a shadow of pink from the recent sunrise, not a cloud to be seen.

Two people, Liz said later they were Sadie and Walt, came out and brought a younger guy with them, Felix. And then, out of the blue, came Noah, from Novi. Liz, for some reason, didn't seem surprised. Oh, she must have seen him when she picked up Carter, before I joined their little entourage.

"Liz, about finding a boyfriend, don't worry about it. Jaz said she had it covered, I guess." I blinked once, a little surprised, and looked at the girl next to him, probably Jaz, who was almost in tears.

"So where's Alexis?" Liz said quickly, trying to get the semi-awkward silence to dissipate.

Instead of making it light, however, a shadow passed over Sadie and Walt's face, even though there was nothing to cause it. "She..." Sadie stumbled, "she's in the infirmary. She hasn't woken up in a few days, and has a fever that won't break. We don't know what's wrong."

Liz looked stricken. "Our Apollo kids are expert healers. Leo, come with me to get her. Don't worry, I know where the infirmary is." She led him away, Leo trying to comfort her.

The flight to Camp was tense, everyone trying to get Alexis in the proper hands as soon as possible. When we landed, we all rushed out, Alexis being carried by Leo, Percy with Felix, and so I stood dutifully by Liz, waiting to be told to back to Novi or wherever she may send me.

It was strange, I suppose, how I made it through the magical boundaries (that normally keep our mortals—like me) without a problem. I guess I did feel a slight tremor run through me, but at the time I was caring more about getting Alexis into the infirmary than pesky little things like magic.

"Liz!" I saw three girls running up the hill, who could only be Piper, with her tell-tale feathered braids; Annabeth, wearing silver owl earrings that perfectly matched her eyes; and Rachel, flaming hair and paint-splattered jeans that I immediately wanted to steal.

While they were getting all hug-y and reuniting-y, I saw Leo call to a tall blonde guy about the same age as Leo, Liz, Percy, and all them, with sky blue eyes, wearing an interesting combination of doctor's scrubs and jeans. He knelt next to Alexis and said, "I see. It's some sort of dream trauma. She must have had a demigod nightmare that left her consciousness stunned. Bring her to the infirmary, right this way." He took the girl from Leo and gestured to the son of Hephaestus to follow.

Instinctively, I made to follow, to make sure she'd be alright, but held back when I saw Rachel looking at me with a curious look on her face. Just looking at her, I suddenly had all of these new, foreign memories flood into my mind. But they were also familiar, things like: prophetic dreams, kissing a boy (his face was a blend of Alex and—was that Percy?)(It didn't feel right, kissing them), being teased, all that jazz.

"I didn't realize it was going to be so soon. Hello, my name is Rachel Elizabeth Dare. You must be the girl that will take on the Spirit of Delphi after me."

My head swiveled around to face Liz in shock. "Wait. So that thing about being Oracle...?" ...That was all true?

Liz looked uncomfortable. "Oh yes. I wasn't kidding."

Well crap.

Annabeth and Rachel had a silent conversation with each other, one that even I couldn't eavesthink (you know, like eavesdropping, but in your head...oh never mind it's totally a word—and it sounds cool) on. These two were just too practiced at keeping their thoughts hidden away from unwanted people. Like me, for instance.

Annabeth turned to Liz and said, taking her arm, "So, how's it going with Leo?"

Rachel studied me some more then said decidedly, "Well I guess I'll have to show you around, won't I? What's your name, by the way?" She showed me all the cabins. We spent almost two hours there, I just had to go in and marvel at each and every one. Then came the lake, woods, climbing wall, archery range, strawberry fields, and the arts & crafts building. Finally she took me to the Big House to introduce me to Chiron and Mr. D. Oh joy.

We found them playing a card game, probably pinochle, Chiron in his wheelchair. As he expanded into his true form, I had to control myself from running over towards the incredible mechanics that were present in his magnificent chair. While, yes, I do tend to break everything I lay my hands on, I do appreciate the finer art of mechanics.

"Rachel? Who is this? A new demigod? Has she been claimed?"

"Well, no sir. Actually, she's...she's a mortal."

"Oh great gods. Not another one," grumbled the god. "Can I blast this one, Chiron?" I stared fearfully ahead.

"No, you may not. So then, girl, what's your name?"

"A-Abigail, sir. I'm from Michigan. Friends with Liz, pre age-jump."

"Well welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Abigail. Rachel, why don't you show her to your cave? She'll need to stay there for the time being."

"Yes, sir. Right this way, Abigail."

Her cave was incredible. Just simply marvelous. The outside was all rock and mystery, complete with the hanging purple curtains. But as soon as you stepped in, it took you to a totally different time and place. Video games (which were usually not allowed) and a huge cache of food (which was also probably illegal) were present with Rachel's easels, art supplies, her actual art projects, and posters of bands all around the room.

"So I was thinking you could take this bed," she said, pointing to the one directly opposite hers. "I had Chiron move it here when I found—I mean, when you came, that is."

"You're a pretty quick thinker then, huh? Couldn't've had more than 90 seconds or so to tell him before you saw me," I noted, eyeing her suspiciously.

She laughed. "Okay, you got me. You're going to be great at this, I can tell. And no, I can't tell you how I knew someone was coming. I hope you'll understand." I nodded. "Good. Now let's get you settled into your new home. You're going to be spending quite a lot of time here."

That night, as I looked around at the few pictures I had put on the ceiling, I recalled dinner. Liz, introducing me to Annabeth, Piper, Clarisse, and everyone else, albeit somewhat reluctantly on my part.

'Yeah,' I thought sleepily, 'home.'


	11. Teaching

The next morning was the official start of my Oracle training, which brought a mix of emotions: fear, excitement, sadness, joy, and most of all, anticipation. I was hard at work all morning, but Rachel said that every afternoon and evening I could have off, to do other camp activities.

"Recognizing and interpreting a prophecy is hard stuff, so we won't start that for at least a month. Dream visions can also be hard to interpret, but it seems to me you're quite capable with those already. We can go more in depth later. We'll start with the most mystical form of predicting the future...crystal balls." My eyes, which were previously shining with excitement, rolled upwards in exasperation. She laughed. "I know it may seem like nonsense to you, and most of it is, but they can come in quite handy. Liz used them once, when she first came here, in a dream.'

She took me to a back closet I hadn't seen the day before and took out a large ball, crystal clear. "We usually start out with the big ones, like this, because it provides a larger area to help you focus your visions through. As you get better with being able to summon up a vision on command, I'll get you smaller and smaller balls until you're so good you don't need one. Now place your hands on the ball, here-no not there-yes, that's it. Focus, concentrate."

"On what?"

"Anything. How about that girl you mentioned, Sarah."

"Alright." I stared into the ball, trying to bring Sarah's face to the forefront of my mind. Instead of seeing the brunette's shy face, however, a question was burning ever brighter within me. "If there was no one to teach you when you came here how do you know all of this? I mean, you're so knowledgeable now, but were you always that way? Because that would be really cool and-"

"Abigail! Focus."

"Right. Sorry." I went back to staring at the cloudy sphere of glass, but my mind kept wandering. I would start thinking of how boring it was and then I would realize a couple minutes had passed of me not concentrating on anything. I did try to focus, truly, I did, but my darned mind wouldn't stay in one place. "But, really. How did you learn all of this?"

She sighed in impatience, but I could detect a hint of amusement as well. It's not like she could criticize me, she had been the very same I'm sure. "I can see we will get nowhere when you are so determined to get an answer from me.

"When I first came to camp, it was right after the Titan War, when everyone was still shocked and recovering. I came here and some took it as a sign of peace, others thought I had come for a much darker purpose, especially since I spouted a new Great Prophecy not long after. I had no place to stay, I would never fit in in any cabin, so Apollo, with Chiron's permission, made me this cave. Being magical, it expands whenever I need more room, or, as in the case of you, someone else comes.

"I needed to learn, but had no teachers, so I discovered all of this on my own. Remember that I have had a few years to explore the fine art of Oracle-ing since then. I figured, as I've told you, that using a medium to help with the initial concentration, so here we are.

"However to be an Oracle, you also need to have a correct mindset. There are several mindsets that could be beneficial, so we'll discuss all of them. For all of them, you do need to be open-minded, to a degree, and the differences come up when we talk about what you're open-minded towards."

"Okay," I replied, talking detailed notes as only I could during something this fascinating.

"The first one, the Traditional Mindset, is when an Oracle is open towards all things supernatural (gods/goddesses, deities, supernatural beings, etc.), but tend to be more...close-minded on social topics. After the first few Oracles in Ancient Greece, they started becoming more...conservative in their social views, moving away from the openness of the Ancient Greeks. Only recently was there a move towards abandoning this mindset. Now, I can't technically tell you not to follow this one, but I wouldn't recomm-"

"Yeah, I think I'll pass on this," I said quickly, crossing it off my list.

"Next there's the Modern Mindset, used by the first few Oracles and not used again for a couple thousand years. The Modern Mindset allows you to be open to all things supernatural, as well as to the social issues of the day. This has been used more recently. Mainly just me, since the previous Oracle was a slight Traditional.

"This next mindset I have dubbed the 'Gullible' Mindset, simply because all who possess it are more likely to fall for conspiracy theories and verbal pranks. It would be likely to be partnered with the Modern Mindset." I laughed. "What?"

"Oh, it's just, I've always been far too trusting and therefore extremely gullible."

Rachel laughed along with me. "Well, at the other end of the spectrum there's the Logical Mindset. This mindset is quite...unusual for Oracles. They make decisions solely based on reasoning, so they tend to disbelieve and supernatural occurrences. Whether or not they are open to the social aspects is entirely up to whether they deem it logical or not. These are quite rare, however there were a few in England during the Reformation during the 1500s and 1600s. Now, you don't have to be fully one mindset. Many Oracles were a combination, mainly Gullible Modern or Traditional Logical."

"If you don't mind me asking, which one or two are you?"

"I am most definitely a Modern Mindset, with no other influences." I could definitely see that, especially since no one would dare try to trick her, with her evil redhead glare. I opened my mouth to voice my opinions on my own mindset but she interrupted me. "Don't think that you have to decide right now. Go walk around and we'll talk tomorrow."

"But, but, I don't know anyone!"  
"Exactly. You need to go meet new people."

Grumbling, I headed outside, where I discovered that it was time for lunch. Since the cave had its own food supply, Rachel said she doesn't usually go to the pavilion, so I was on my own.

I walked into the pavilion where everyone was already seated and all of my fears of moving to a new school resurfaced, bright and begging to be noticed. Chiron noticed and walked over to where I was standing in the middle of everyone, eyes wide with fear written all over. "Heroes! This is Abigail, a mortal who has been invited to stay here. Welcome her, and treat her as you would any other newcomer."

I blushed a vibrant pink and turned to where I had seen Liz sit down when a voice cried out, "Hey! We already have a mortal here! Why do we need another one?"

As he said that I could feel my vision tunneling and black spots started dancing around everywhere. 'No, not here,' I thought frantically. 'Please, not here.'

Chiron glanced towards Liz, who had stood up. "Why welcome her? Because it's the right thing to do, scheiβkopf!" And then she started swearing, with a mixture of German and English, so fast no one could understand anything she was saying (which was probably a good thing).

I tried to sit down next to her, who was seated at a table with Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, and Leo, but Rachel, who happened to also be there for once, said, "Nope, not allowed. You've got to learn how to make friends."

Panicking again, I looked up and happened to make eye contact with a black-haired girl. "Hey, newbie! Come sit with us!"

"Gopher!" One of the blonde-haired boys sitting next to her smacked her. "Her name's Abigail, didn't you hear Chiron?"

I slid in next to her and managed to gulp out a timid "Hi".

"Pardon my friend here," the boy said. "This is Gopher, literal black sheep of the Athena Cabin. And I'm Matt."

"Hi, Matt. Hi, Gopher. So this is the Athena cabin?"

"Yeah." I looked around at the other Athena kids, a new sort of awe filling me. First, genius spies, now children of the wisdom goddess?? I could hardly believe my luck.

"You a big fan?" Gopher asked, smirking.

"Yeah, I've always loved Athena. When I was younger I always wished I could be an Athena kid."

"Well now you can be."

"Really??"

Well, an honorary one, but sure. You look kinda like one and you seem pretty smart, so why not. Do you have a weekly schedule yet?"

I was momentarily speechless, a child of Athena calling me, ME!, smart. Unbelievable. "Not really. Rachel said I have every afternoon and evening off, but not mornings. I think I have lessons then."

"Hey, cool, d'ya think you want to do them with me?"

"Sure, that would be cool."

"You're staying with the freak?" I heard a voice say behind me. I turned around to see an Asian girl in fifty pounds of makeup say, disgust etched in her voice and face alike. "Well I guess that makes sense. The weirdo with the freak and all." One of her friends, who I recognized as the one who yelled out during my introduction, laughed, which put me over the edge. Insults I can handle, but as soon as you go after one of my friends, you're a goner.

"And what makes her such a freak? The fact that she learned something in two years that you'll never be able to?" Everyone at my table gasped in unison and then laughed.

"Well what about you? Have you ever even heard of concealer? I mean, obviously not, but you really should try some."

"Why? I don't care how I look, and besides, I don't have anything to cover up, unlike you." She gasped and turned away, blinking back tears. Immediately I regretted what I had said. Maybe if I had just left it alone.

"That was great!"

"Did you see her face?"

"Sweet."

Everyone around me thought what I said was the best thing ever, but I still felt guilt. "Maybe I should go over and apologize..." I whispered.

"What? No!" Gopher said. "She insulted you, you have the right to insult her back. Besides, that's Drew Tanaka, the biggest bi-"

"Yeah, I guess," I replied, covering her up. "But that last comment was really harsh, wasn't it?"

"No, not at all. Besides, she and her little posse make fun of everyone here. Maybe you put her in her place."

I sighed. "I doubt it. Liz told me that they fight all the time and nothing's ever really changed."

"Well maybe you're the person who's destined to teach her a lesson or two."


	12. A Couple Problems Arise

A few days later I was eating lunch with Matt and Gopher, like always, when I remembered my promise about Drew four days earlier. "Hey guys, I'll be back in a minute okay? I just need to go talk to someone."

I walked up to where Drew was sitting with some of her Aphrodite siblings. "What do you want, weirdo?" I cringed inwardly at the malice in her voice. The malice that I had put there.

"Well, um, Drew, I'd actually like to...apologize...about what I said the other day." 'Oh good gods this is not how to make a good apology, Abigail.' "I realize that what I said was uncalled for and I want to take it back. I-If that's okay with you, I mean," I stuttered, holding my breath for her answer.

She gave me a calculated glare and ignored the gaping faces that everyone was sporting, aimed specifically at me it seemed. "Alright then, weirdo. Just don't pull anything on me. For all I know you could actually be a daughter of Nemesis in disguise," she replied, holding out her hand. Even with the threatening words, her tone was one of joking. I shook her hand and returned to the Athena table where everyone started talking at once. Again.

After we were done, Gopher and I went outside to talk some. Despite knowing each other for only a few days, we were already close friends. We talked almost nonstop about anything and everything, saying whatever appears in our minds.

This time we were talking about my response to Drew, but before long were interrupted by Rachel, who called an extra training lesson. I said goodbye to Gopher a couple minutes later and was jogging towards the cave when a group of dark-looking kids stopped me. Most of them had dark hair and eyes, although some were fair-haired, but all wearing black or dark grey with intimidating looks on their faces.  
"You, mortal."

"Yes?"

"We're the children of Nemesis and we would like to instruct you on a little thing we like to call proper revenge. You see, while most of our fellow campmates were impressed by your little show earlier, we realized that you might not fully comprehend to how to properly enact revenge."

"Oh, but I don't want—"

"Nonsense. Revenge is a necessary part of life. What you should do now is go and hurt her, just like you did the other day. She already trusts you, the fool, trust is for those who are weak, and so your betrayal will hurt her even more." I thought they were finished and started to turn away but one called out, "Oh, and stay away from Gopher. He's a bad influence on everyone. He's such a wimp."

I nodded distractedly and ran off. He? 'Well I have been mistakenly called that too.' I laughed, then turned more sober. 'But why would the Nemesis kids have a problem with Gopher? Everyone else seems to like her.'

I walked into the cave where Rachel was sitting there, waiting with the crystal balls. "Sorry I'm late," I apologized, "I ran into some Nemesis kids."

"What for?" She looked worried. "I would be careful if I were you. Those kids can be a nasty bunch. Well, except for—Anyways, I forgot to ask you earlier, have you given any thought towards what your possible Mindset might be?"

I had actually been thinking of little else since she explained them to me. Distracted from what she almost said, I began to talk. "I have, yeah. I know it's unusual, but I feel that I am already headed towards a Gullible-Logical-Modern mix. Is that even possible? Being a mix of three? I mean I'm already pretty gullible and would hope that I'm open to most things, but I feel that if we were able to interpret visions and prophecies in multiple ways, one of those being reason along with gut instinct, maybe we could come closer to finding the truth?"

She frowned, thinking hard. My thought-sharing, which had taken a backseat for a couple weeks, started running again, and rapidly. I not only could hear Rachel's thoughts ('Hm, interesting. I'll have to consult Chiron on his, and possibly Liz, Annabeth, and Piper as well.'), but also another's, one with a faint familiarity attached to it.

'Rachel. I must ask Rachel. Abigail too, if she's there. Oh gods oh gods this is bad.'

"What's bad?"  
"What?"

"Oh, it's just, Liz is running over here, and something is really wrong."

"What? How do you—"

"Later. Just go let her in."

She got up and stuck her head out the purple velvet curtains that serves as our entryway and said, "Well, are you going to stand there marveling at a cave all day or do you have actual business to attend to?" Liz laughed and followed Rachel in, taking a seat on the arm of the couch while Rachel plopped down next to me. "So, what brings you here? Don't worry, we weren't in the middle of anything important," she continued. Liar. "You're not intruding." True, I'm always happy to hear from one of my best friends.

Liz was really more off than on the arm of the couch, which would have been quite funny had I not sensed her worry a moment before. "Well, I was thinking, say a demigod had seen their godly parent in a dream, but they did not know who the god/goddess was. It turns out this god/goddess was never supposed to have children with mortals or...anyone, really. While the child doesn't know the name, they know the face, and while they don't know why they are forbidden to exist, they still have grown to hate the godly parent. Do you follow thus far?"

Rachel and I nodded, my thoughts flying a million miles a minute. 'There's only a few deities like that,' I thought. 'And all of them, that I know of, are goddesses. Artemis, Hestia, Hera, and maybe a couple others?' Out loud, however, I said, "Something tells me this isn't as hypothetical a situation as you're making it out to be."

"Anyways..." she replied, not answering my question. "Then, say, their parent has decided to come to see them, not to claim them, but to ask them to follow them as one of their many followers? And the demigods recognizes hem? Do you think they'd call out their parent (who they still probably hate) on being cowardly not to claim them and then causing something...bad to happen?" At this point Liz was far passed vaguely masked nervousness. Oh no, now she was full on scared.

"Who's Alexis's mother, Liz?" Rachel pressed.

"My Lady Artemis," Liz muttered quietly.

"Is that even possible?" I had guessed as much, but hearing Liz say it made it even worse.

"From what I have heard, Alexis's father was very young when her mother left him with the baby. It makes sense. The only one who have a chance for her to fall in love with him was a teenage boy. And after a certain amount of faithful persistence, and resemblance to Orion, how could she refuse him? When I was younger, she used to tell me about 'the only other man who was decent enough to be her companion,' and now I understand."

"Well," Rachel began, "this could indeed be quite the catastrophe, to be completely honest. Um, I think it may be necessary for the maiden goddess' little secret to be outed though..."

"Oh no. No no no. I know that you think it is for the overall good, but as a dear friend of my Lady, I must decline the proposition. There is no way that can happen. Imagine the trouble she'd get into!"

'See, but, Liz,' I thought, 'imagine the scandal it would cause if it was spilled in 10 or 20 years and you'd known about it the whole time.'

I could almost hear her respond, 'Shut up that's a good point.'

"If she didn't want to get in trouble, then maybe she shouldn't have gotten involved with a man!" That was Rachel. "If she didn't want to face the inevitable consequences, then maybe she shouldn't have made that choice. Gibing up men means even giving up the ones you love, doesn't it?"

"I presume you refer to my brother?" Oh boy this was getting heated. I really do hate it when people fight. "Rachel, could you resist it, if there was no Annabeth? Because Artemis had no Annabeth to stop her. Could you have resisted it?"

"I still would take my punishment, as she should."

"Liz, I know you want to defend Artemis, being her friend and all, but I think Rachel might be right on this one. I have no Annabeth either, but I'd have to refuse Andrew," I said, realizing at last that if I absolutely had to, I would make that choice. The good of many is greater than the good of one, even if that one is yourself.

"Oh yeah. Da sevie. Ha. Funny, the little inside jokes and small things one forgets when one becomes responsible for the entire world..." Liz trailed off. "I think I need to go. There's something I have to take care of."

'Yes, there is,' I thought, watching her retreating back.

"Well then. I think we've done enough today, don't you think? Why don't you go do your activities with Gopher and Matt, and I'm going to go talk to Chiron about something." Funny, how people, already, have begun to lump me in with those two, even though I was friends with a great portion of their cabin.

I ran off to meet up with my friends at archery, which I was thoroughly terrible at.

"Abigail! I swear, if you don't stop hitting me..."

"Sorry! I'm trying, it just keeps swerving." I tried to explain it to her, but Gopher never really believed me, considering she always stood right next to me or even behind me, yet was constantly getting hit by my wayward arrows.

After that was Ancient Greek, taught by Annabeth, which everyone excelled at. I found it surprisingly easy to pick up, and enjoyed those lessons immensely. Next was dinner (I had missed Arts and Crafts hen talking with Rachel and Liz—another thing I was awful at. The Athenians—can I call them that?—were brilliant of course), where I stayed quiet, thinking about Alexis and her troubling situation.

"Abigail? Yoohoo! Anybody home?" I blinked. Gopher was waving her hand in front of my face.

"Ouch! Gopher!" Now she was hitting me on the head.

"Gopher, stop harassing her. Abigail, really, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm—"

"I bet she just needs to talk to an older, wiser, girl about feelings."

"What? No it's not about—"

"Older? Sure, but not really, Gopher. You're only a few months older than her! But wiser? Everyone knows I'm definitely the wisest one here. And since when have you ever been good with feelings? This is Athena, not Aphrodite, remember?"

"Oh hush, Matt. C'mon, Abigail." She yanked me by the arm and dragged me over to the beach, where we sat in the cool sand. "Okay, now you can spill. No pesky boys around here to bother us."

"Come one, Matt isn't that bad. And besides, I'm really not supposed to talk about it..."

"Ooh, secret relationship?"

"What? No! I've only been here five days!" I could feel my face heat up at the thought of dating anyone, especially not so soon after Alex. "Well, actually, I just remembered something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Go on."

"Well this afternoon, I ran in to some Nemesis kids and they told me to stay away from you, that you were a bad influence. Why would they say that about you? You're awesome!"

She took a deep breath and sighed. "Have you ever wondered why I'm the only one at the Athena table without some shade of blonde hair? Even those who should have black or brown or red hair have a somewhat blonde-covered head."

"Well, I guess. I mean I never gave it much thought."

"Well it's because my mother isn't Athena. It's Nemesis, but I've never been able to stomach what her other children consider 'revenge'. None of them understand that there are multiple kinds of revenge: there is the emotional, rage-driven revenge where you set out to hurt them; but there is also the justifying revenge, which is used when you believe justice could and should be enacted. Most people don't realize that justice is a form of revenge, and all of her other children don't see it either.

"I didn't realize this when I first came here, but eventually I did, and explained everything to Matt. He agreed with me, and suggested I ask Chiron if I could switch cabins. He wouldn't allow me to sleep there, although he did say that I could eat and do my activities with them. In reality I feel more of Athena's daughter than Nemesis's. I just can't accept someone that believes that revenge is all about hurting others. I just can't do it. They've tormented me since then, calling me a traitor to their mother. My mother."

"How long?"

"Five years."

"Five years?? Gopher, you let them bully you for nearly a third of your life!"

"Matt did force me to talk to Chiron a couple years back and so he's talked to them, but he can't keep all of them chained all the time. So they tend to do it anyways."

"Oh. Well that explains why they called you a wimp which I thought was odd since you're always so brave. How did the Athena kids take it?"

"Oh they're always happy to have more brains on board and any who weren't' were soon dealt with."

"That's good! If any of those idiots say anything again, I'll make sure they never do another time."

"Really? You? No offense, but you're a little short, newbie."

I punched her in the arm. "Still? With the newbie thing? And don't worry, I did karate for a few years."

"You? No way. And OW. That hurt."

I laughed. "Told you so."

She laughed with me. "Okay, fine, you did." Then she looked up at the sky and startled. It was dark and the stars were shining so brightly they hurt your eyes. "We better get back to our cabins! Wouldn't want the harpies to get to us." She helped me up and we ran back, laughing the whole time.

Later, however, I wasn't laughing. I was extremely worried about tomorrow, which I had gathered was when Lady Artemis and her Hunters would show up. This was getting tremendously sticky. I could feel it clinging to me, like a layer of jam all over my skin. I slept fitfully, not being able to relax about what awaited us the next day.


	13. Some Changes are Presented

After a night of restless sleep, I got up early, knowing I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. I grabbed Gopher and Matt and we all went on a short run through the forest (bad idea, yes, but with two Athena kids - yes, Gopher counts - and a crazy person like me, we were good).

At around 7:30 the breakfast bell rang and we went in to eat. Rachel had me sit with her at the Apollo cabin since we, along with Liz, were the only ones who knew what was going to happen and Liz didn't want to take any chances with the secret being let out. Halfway through the meal, a horn blew, followed by a horde of silver-decked girls, all around my age.

The leader of the group, the Lady Artemis, walked up to Chiron, but before he could welcome her, a voice ran out. "Mom?!"

The young goddess flinched, and all of the Hunters turned first to stare at her, then Alexis. The most shocked of them all was a girl, probably 15 or 16, with a silver circlet atop her black hair. No, forget shocked. Thalia Grace looked downright appalled. 

"Don't act so clueless," Alexis snapped. "I recognize you from my dreams. Why don't you face me, woman? Or are you too ashamed of how your precious Hunters would judge you if you owned up?"

Her mother, not even bothering to face her, replied, "You act as though I had harmed you,. Even if I was not who I am, I would have had to of left you with your father. Did you know that? The Gods are forbidden to stay with their children."

"And what? Were you going to skip the major details and ask me to join your men-forsaken Hunt?" It was clear that she was hurting, possibly more than she ever had before. Whatever Artemis had said, she most certainly had harmed her. "Well you know what, Artemis? I am in love with my best friend, Felix, and I would appreciate you not interfering with my life. I've gone 13 and a half years without you, and I can go the rest of them the same way!"

Everyone's jaw dropped. I don't think any of them had dared to think of a mortal (or demi-god) talk to a deity the way Alexis was doing now. Felix, on the other hand, was astonished for another reason. He looked so happy and surprised I felt sorry for him, since he wasn't able to celebrate or jump up and down.

Liz ran forward, trying to help her mentor. "My Lady... Look, I know that the gods have probably heard what just happened, but I'll protect you okay. It'll be fi-"

"Liz, when one makes an error with the wisdom of a 12-year old, one owes it to oneself to accept the consequences. My father will be summoning me soon." She smiled a smile that was not one of joy. "Any words, dear friend?"

"A quote you taught me when I was younger, actually, 'A universal paradox: you are free to make choices, but you are not free to choose the consequence of your choice.' Right?"

"I think that's relatively close to it, yes. Treat the Hunters well. I presume I'll be in exile or something for a little while." The goddess was swallowed by a faint, yet most certainly divine, light, as she was called up to Olympus.

As I watched her ascend, I realized something quite odd. I've always, always, agreed with Liz when it came to important things, but this time, I noticed, it wasn't like that at all. I understand her protectiveness when it comes to Artemis, mentors always hold a special place in your heart and I would never readily believe that Rachel had ever done anything that wrong, but to step in and say that you wouldn't let the rightful consequences happen? That seems to be overstepping the line to me. Perhaps its just the Logical Mindset part of me, but it seems to me that if you do something with the full knowledge that it is wrong, especially when you broke a law that you yourself set, then no, you shouldn't be offered protection. Exile may be a little harsh, but they are immortal after all. They have all the time in the world (literally).

Liz turned to Alexis. "Those were very harsh words you used with your mother."

"She abandoned me. I mean, all the gods do, but she never intended to claim me! It isn't fair. It's not my fault my parents screwed around and screwed up. Why should I go into a three week coma for the fact that I exist when that's not my fault?" Alexis answered hotly.

"For the same reason I can never know who my mother is," Liz replied.

Fair point, I thought.

"We get punished for what our parents did because it's easier to take it out on us than them. But others putting the blame on you is no worse than you blaming Artemis. She's still your mother."

How is it the same as blaming Artemis? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation, but to me it seems that this is entirely her fault. Yes, she is her mother and a goddess but that does not mean she is not imperfect.

Felix butted in, "Am I the ONLY one who heard Alexis declare her love for me? I mean, guys, there are obviously more important issues here."

Gopher, Matt, and a few others yelled out, "Shut up, Felix!"

"Do you think he was even aware of anything else that just occurred?" Alexis stage-whispered.

"Nope," Liz stage-whispered back. "I think guys only hear what pertains to them directly and that's basically it."

Alexis turned to the Hunters, who had been standing there stoically, and uncomfortably began, "Well, um...hello. I guess I will be sharing a cabin with you all. Uh...this should be awkward enough, seeing as your goddess broke the vow she forced each of you to take." She looked around and startled a little when her eyes fell on Thalia. "...Thalia?"

"Hey, kid. I see you made out pretty well," the daughter of Zeus replied warmly. "You look much better than the last time I saw you. Damn manticore spikes and their poison, eh?"

Liz looked at them incredulously, but I wasn't surprised. Somehow it seemed right, Artemis' lieutenant and her illegitimate daughter meeting and, it seemed, becoming friends, all without knowing who the other truly is. 

Alexis laughed and replied, "Yeah. I still have it," and pulled out a silver pin, which expanded and became a fully functional bow.

"I do hope it has been of use to you?"

"Yes, much use."

Thalia led Alexis and the rest of the Hunters to Cabin 8 to put their stuff down and rest, as they had probably been on the move for several days at the very least. I waited until Alexis had left to join Felix with their activities before running back to the cave in order to continue my lessons in Oracle-ness with Rachel. 

 

"First things first, what happened this morning is not something that you should go spreading around. That being said, don't lie or avoid the question were someone to ask. The campers shouldn't be kept from the truth, but that doesn't mean they have to know immediately. Is that clear?"

"Yes. That makes sense."

"Good. Now back to what we were supposed to learn yesterday. Now that you know your...specific...mindset, it will be easier for you to focus with your crystal balls. Now, remind me, were you able to see anything the other day when we first tried?"

"No," I said dejectedly.

"Don't worry, that's completely expected for someone who's just begun a few days ago. Remember, I wasn't capable of calling up a vision, even with a ball, for a month or two. I also didn't have a wonderful teacher helping me along," she replied with a wink.

"Okay." I took a deep breath, laid my hands on the cool surface and closed my eyes, trying to block off all outside thoughts. My mind was whirling and I didn't think I would ever be able to get it right, even if I spent ten years on it. But then I felt a sort of extreme calm wash over me, as if the world could end and I would understand that that was the natural order of the universe. It was brief, lasting only a nanosecond, but I felt it none the less. I tried to grab on to it, but the more I grasped, the more elusive that feeling became. Once it was gone for good, my eyes shot open and I stared wide-eyed at my teacher across the short table that was between us. 

"Did you do it?" She sounded so excited, I was hesitant to correct her. I can't imagine it would be easy, being the only person, possibly in the world, who has this sort of knowledge. And then I come along, which means that for a short while she has the opportunity to share that burden, while carrying along the additional burden of knowing what a new Oracle means.

"No...but I did feel something! It felt like a wave of some sort, as if I had the capabilities of knowing the entire world's knowledge. Is that normal?"

"Yes! That's tremendous improvement! I think you've come to that point where if you figure out how to sustain that feeling and then harness it, you will be able to do an incredible amount of things with your powers. What I think you should try now, since you're part Logical Mindset, is not to clear your mind, but, well, have you been doing homework and something that has always been a complete mystery all of a sudden makes perfect sense?"

"Yeah, I know that feeling."

"So then try to remember that feeling. Let it fill you up and completely consume you, and try to use reason to understand that whatever happens will happen, and there is nothing you can do to prevent that."

I nodded slowly, letting her idea seep into my brain. "That sounds like it's worth a shot." So I repeated my actions as before, this time pretending that I was the universe, completely omniscient. I had done this a couple times before, when I've realized that no matter what I would do, it wouldn't have any lasting effect on the universe, or even the Earth, merely because I was one of the seven billion people residing on a small planet within a small solar system, which itself is one of 200-400 billion in the Milky Way, one of 100 or 200 BILLION galaxies, full of billions of stars with planets orbiting around them, and who am I to say that I matter?

Now I know that while that might be perfectly true, I also know that while people may not be able to alter the existence of the universe, they can easily destroy the lives of everyone around them, and just as easily stop that chaotic destruction. This was what Liz was to do. She was that one person who was going to organize an army and lead them into hell to keep it confined where it belongs.

Suddenly I stumbled into a room. Not just any room though, my room, from Michigan, the one that I had spent most of my life in. The one that had gone through so many of the same experiences and revelations that I had. Suddenly the quiet of the dark room was shattered by my mom bursting in and waking me up. I startled when I realized that this was the time from when I dreamed of Liz, before I ran away to Camp. I watched the scene as if from above, taking in small details I hadn't noticed the first time.

Such as the fact that my mom was looking at me with a distraught look on her face, as if she knew that in a few days time I would have vanished. As much as I knew that it really didn't have as big of an impact on the world as some things, I now know that to her, I really did destroy her world. My brothers, they're almost eight now, we're watching me as well, not really knowing why I had been so distressed that past month. I felt like I was drowning, watching my family that I haven't seen in so long and hadn't really thought about an extreme amount. I promised to myself that no matter what happened, I would try and visit them once, in a dream, before the world ended. 

And then I felt a strong hand on my shoulder, shaking me insistently. I slowly opened my eyes to see a worried Rachel. "Oh thank gods I was so worried!"

"Why?"

"You were out for almost an hour!"

"What?!" I took a deep breath, shaking a little at the vision, and recounted it to her in the barest terms. I could see how excited she was about me having a vision, but I couldn't find it in me to match her joy.

"You know what, you've done a lot and made a lot of improvement today, so take the rest of the morning off, okay?"

"Okay, thanks, Rachel," I answered, giving her a grateful smile. I got up, my legs still extremely weak from the shock of seeing myself, yet again, in a vision. I slowly walked outside and went down to the beach, hoping the waves would calm me down, but instead they only reminded me of the feeling that brought me the vision. I decided was done with the crystal balls for a while.


	14. Thanksgiving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I realize now that this website won't let me bold, underline, or italicize anything, so if something sounds like it should be bolded/underlined/italicized, then it probably is.

Over the next few weeks, which were as ordinary as they possibly could be at a camp for demigods, I mastered the crystal balls and had moved onto preparing myself for when the spirit of the Oracle would officially reside within me (as weird as that sounds). Rachel had said that it was vitally important for me to learn what to expect so I could prepare myself, otherwise "you might just do what I did and almost die in front of the whole camp plus a god or two please don't do that you'll regret it the rest of your (possibly quite short) life".

After the increasingly longer and more extensive lessons with Rachel, I always had the rest of my activities with Gopher, Matt, and the rest of the Athena cabin. I loved Ancient Greek and Greek Mythology (taught by Annabeth and Chiron), hated Arts & Crafts (as expected) and climbing the lava-rock-obstacle wall (also expected; as a lifelong member of the Extreme Acrophobia Club, climbing mixed with certain death was not my idea of fun), and managed to marginally improve in Archery. Volleyball was one of the more enjoyable activities, along with unarmed combat, but I avoided capture the flag (since I couldn't be revived with nectar and ambrosia like the other campers) and wrestling (Clarisse continually pestered me to join in but after one hour-long session of getting pummeled into the earth I decided I had had enough).

I also managed to befriend the entirety of the Athena, Hephaestus, Zeus, and Demeter cabins. I had also befriended most of the Poseidon (had only met Tyson briefly but he had seemed to like me), Hades (hadn't had the chance to meet Hazel yet), Iris, Hermes, Hecate, and Apollo kids (because of the Oracle thing). I didn't get along real well with the Ares kids aside from Clarisse, the same for Nike. The Nemesis kids predictably hated me, but I was perfectly content with that because of how they have always treated Gopher. Surprisingly, I had several friends from the Aphrodite cabin including Drew (but not the rest of her paparazzi group, they've never forgive me for what I said that first week). Dionysus disliked me as he did every other camp personnel, but I greatly enjoyed talking to Hestia whenever she appeared to tend the fires. Hera was my least favorite (along with Zeus, but I tend to keep that one to myself), mainly because of what she's done to Annabeth, Percy, Jason, and Liz (just to name a few).

Before I knew it, Thanksgiving had descended upon us. Even though we didn't strictly celebrate the American holiday, many of us gathered together to celebrate and eat anyways. Rachel chose to remain at camp this year so she could continue teaching me. We had decided that if I chose to finish my eighth grade year at Gallagher (I still hadn't decided), it would be wise to get in all the instruction time we could. Matt went home for a few days to visit his parents and younger (mortal) siblings in Oregon, but Gopher always stayed at camp, for reasons neither she nor Matt would tell me. I was happy for the company, no matter the reason. Liz, Percy, Annabeth, Nico, and Leo went to Sally and Paul's in the city so Liz could look at a school for the spring semester (and to, you know, spend time with Sally and Paul). Jason and Piper went to Piper's dad's house in California for a while to visit him, Coach Hedge, Mellie, and Chuck.

Actual Thanksgiving Day had fallen on the 28th this year, so the Holiday Committee was a little stressed, having Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and then having to take those decorations down and put up the Christmas ones (along with Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and all the others) all on the 30th. That being said, the Thanksgiving decorations were still great, even better than they had the year before according to Gopher. There were elaborate hand-turkeys the Athena kids had made in Arts & Crafts, tons of cornucopias spread all around the camp courtesy of the Demeter cabin, there were many needed stolen goods randomly distributed thanks to Hermes, and period-correct magic weapons which the Hephaestus, Ares, and Hecate cabins made.

The meal was absolutely fantastic and had more than I could have ever imagined: a turkey turkey, a tofu turkey, three different types of stuffing, two different types of potatoes and five boats of gravy, squash, sweet potato, yams, four salads, various types of cookies, a few cheesecakes, and a total of fifteen pies (pumpkin - of course - apple, cherry, chocolate, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, walnut, coconut cream, key lime, lemon meringue, peach, rhubarb, strawberry, sweet potato). They had ALL the pies. Everyone ate more than they had thought possible, and I had to restrain myself from getting seconds of everything. I did try every option and I didn't think this could happen, but by the end of it I was pretty sick of food. I could tell Gopher was too, so we ended up rolling away from the pavilion to lay on the beach, as it was an extraordinarily pleasant night for late November.

But while still present at the table with most of the other campers (there were a lot - hence, all the food), I experienced one of the happiest times of my (remembered) life. I'm not really sure what it was, other than no one judged anyone else, even if on any other day you could always be found throwing insults or spears at one another, and that no matter how different we were individually, we all had some common experiences that we were able to relate to. 

There was Jake (Ares) who had five younger step-siblings who he had to constantly watch over, Tanya (Hermes) with her constant and severe stagefright, and even Drew, who we all found out, much to our amusement, once tripped in front of her entire middle school during an assembly. Gopher told us how she once tried climbing the rock wall her first week here and nearly died (everyone around the table nodded in agreement, I guess that's a common occurrence here), while Sammy (Iris) recalled the story of their friend getting sick in the middle of a test, at the same time Will Solace made everyone laugh with the story of the final battle against Gaea (and the Romans) with Lou Ellen and the screeching piglets.

While talking to Gopher, I explained the Gallagher Academy and everything that had to do with it, including Alex, the masquerade ball, the teachers and classes, even how it was a spy school (maybe I shouldn't have, but I felt that if I was going to go there in a month she'd probably want some details). I also explained how I was still thinking about whether or not I wanted to go back to school or continue my training here with Rachel and the rest of the camp. She looked down when I mentioned going away, so I switched the topic back to funny, stupid stories of me making a general idiot of myself (I'm never on a short supply).

She in return told me about the time she met Matt. Apparently it was a couple weeks after she had run away (she clammed up when I asked her why, so I let it be) when he appeared overnight. She was just beginning to feel uncomfortable in the Nemesis cabin with her half-siblings, so she was spending more and more time away from them. It was early in the morning, 6ish she remembered, practicing archery with the targets. Now she's quite good presently, but at the time she was rivaling me for ability (or lack thereof). She was struggling and getting quite frustrated, when a "scrawny kid with long blonde hair decided to show me up," she recalled. He took the bow laying next to her, aimed at his target and hit an inch off of the bulls-eye, hardly even taking aim.

"And you know what this little prat did? After humiliating me in front of the whole world [she exaggerates sometimes, can't you tell?], he sticks out his hand and says 'Matt Brown. Nice to meet you.' Instead of shaking his hand like I probably should have, I took my bow and the arrow I was holding and tried to shoot his hand. I say tried because I missed, which just made him laugh and kinda defeated the purpose a little bit, the purpose being to intimidate him with my super-awesomeness."

Tears were rolling down my cheeks by the time she had finished her dramatic reenactment. Struggling to catch my breath, I managed to say, "Well that sounds like something you'd do, so I can't say I'm surprised."

"Oh and don't get me started," she replied, "about your first few days here, Newbie."

"Oh gods, don't remind me," I groaned, covering my rapidly reddening face with my hands, but not before delivering an elbow to her gut in response for the nickname. "That was awful." Quick to change the subject, I asked, "Are you doing anything for tomorrow? Black Friday, and everything."

"Gods no! I hate shopping in absolutely every single form."

"Same here! I'm actually a little glad Rachel is making me spend all day in 'preparation mode' lessons."

"Well then, I might have to sneak out alone so I can buy everyone presents."

"Presents! I totally forgot about those! Maybe I can convince Rachel to let me out for an hour or two..."

"Better make it five, Newbie, those stores are always more crowded than anything you've ever imagined."

This time I merely sighed in response to the name she has committed to calling me, as well as the knowledge that I was going to have to spend several hours in a store (which I already hated the thought of) with a couple hundred people, which made it all the more unappealing. "You know what, let's just wait a week or so, then the stores won't be as crowded."

"Sure, but that still leaves the dilemma of what I'll do all day while you're being held hostage in the cave."

"Well unless you'd like me to die when it comes time for me to actually be Oracle, I think you'll want me to continue with these lessons."

"I guess that's true. Doesn't mean I'll enjoy it though."

"Neither will I," I replied, laughing. "Wait, what time is it? Do we need to get back to the cabin?"

"You're the one with the watch, Newbie, don't ask me."

"Oh right. It's 11:30, we should probably head back."

"Nah, the harpies don't bother us on holidays. Besides, no one ever comes to this part of the beach. We can stay here for a little while longer." And so we stayed out there for another hour...or maybe 2...or 5. We must have fallen asleep because the next thing I remembered was being shaken awake by Rachel and feeling extremely cold.


	15. Chapter 15: Thought-Sharing, Take 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another look at thought-sharing
> 
> Sorry I suck at summaries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyyyyy..... so I'd say it's been a while, wouldn't you? Anyways, I've been crazy busy with school/no motivation, but reading my friend's new chapters to the main series this is a part of (@pickles_25 on Wattpad, go check her out!) has gotten me wanting to write this some more. Most of this I had written sporadically prior to today, so I just finished it off and I'll try and get started on the next one!

"Abigail!"

I blinked my eyes blearily, my brain registering the fact that Gopher and I were laying on the beach when it was barely 30 out with minimal warm-weather clothing. "Wha-What happened? Is everyone alright?"

"You never came back to the cave last night! I was worried you had disappeared!"

Geez, you miss one check-in and the world blows up, I thought, though I realized Rachel really did have a point. Considering her past experiences with people mysteriously disappearing and coming back a little worse for wear, or not at all, it shouldn't come as a surprise she automatically jumped to one of the worst conclusions.

"Sorry, Rachel," Gopher apologized. "We must have just gotten distracted. We'll try not to let it happen again."

"I know, which is why you're not being punished. Let's all - yes, that means you too, Gopher - go to the Big House and warm up. Then we can get back to work." She directed that last line at me with a small glare to accompany it. I knew today was to be an all-day work day, but that didn't make me any happier about it.

 

After being blown warm with giant gold leaf-blower-type things, Gopher went back to the Athena Cabin while Rachel and I continued on to the cave, where preparations weren't going nearly as well as we'd hoped.

"I have an idea!" Rachel exclaimed after two excruciatingly resultless hours. "What if we use that thing you and Liz can do - thought-sharing - but in reverse?"

"You mean you getting my thoughts instead of me getting yours? Or you pushing your thoughts into my head instead of me searching for them so I can get used to having someone else's thoughts in my head? Could either of those even work?"

"They might... I know the first one might because Liz told me once that thoughts are all around us and some people are naturally more inclined towards sending and receiving them. And if you teach me how to send them then it might work!"

"That actually makes a lot of sense, thanks!"

"So do you think you could teach me how to do it?" She looked so hopeful I was almost ashamed to tell her that it might not work.

"Umm... Well, I'll try, but I don't know how successful it'll turn out to be. In order to 'send' the thoughts, first imagine forming what you want to communicate into a three-dimensional object."

"How would you go about doing that?"

I sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to figure out how best to communicate to her exactly how to do it. Finally, I stumbled upon an idea. "Try and picture holding a box, and in that box is the thought."

"Okay...I think I've gotten it."

"Now imagine handing the box over to me, and me taking it from your hands."

"O...........kay. I did it."

I felt a small whisper of a thought brush the outer reaches of my mind. Almost a fully formed thought, but not quite. "Hm, that was close. Try shoving the box at me. Maybe that will work." What followed was a thought that, if it were spoken aloud, could have deafened me. "That was right," I managed, wincing at the sheer volume of GODS I HOPE THIS WORKS that had been bombarding my brain moments before. "Just, try and take the box away now." The foreign thoughts, that carried the sense of calm madness unique to Rachel, dispersed, leaving my mind blessedly alone. "How about forcefully placing it in my hands rather than throwing it, though?"

"Oh, right, sorry about that," she replied impishly, not sounding at all sorry about it.

"That's incredible though! It shouldn't be that easy for someone to get a grasp of it that quickly, but I guess being an Oracle helps. Sending is usually harder than receiving, which some people do without realizing it, especially when the other person chucks it in a general direction instead of handing it to a specific person. Receiving from someone who is trying to send a thought-message to you is fairly easy. You can typically sense that the person is putting the box in your hands so all you have to do is grab on and open it. Receiving without having a sender varies in difficulty, depending on how many people are nearby and how perceptive you are to the specific person. Think of thoughts as particles in the air that-"

"What do you mean?"

"You know when you see a whole bunch of dust particles in a beam of sunlight? Well, pretend each of those is a person's thoughts contained within a thought-message. They're always there, but you need something to make them seen (in this case the light reflecting off of them). Some people live in a room that's completely dark, so they aren't able to receive anything at all. Others see their 'room' as fully lit, as if they weren't in a room at all but rather being within the sun, and so they, therefore, see all of these 'particles'. Most people, however, are in a partially lit 'room', or are in a semi-shaded clearing in a forest. They are aware of or can receive only a fraction of what's there, however that fraction varies in size. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, actually! Does your relationship with the person change how receptive you are to their thought-messages?"

"For some people, it's easiest to 'read the thoughts' of others if they are extremely close, while with others it's easiest if they are complete strangers with the other person. The rest find it easiest if they kind of know each other, but not super well. For example, Liz and I had only known each other for a few months when we were first able to communicate like this. However, it can vary with each person you try communicating with.

"Most people send their messages in the form of words, like how you did it with me earlier. That's the easiest way for people to picture it since you can transmit language far easier than you can emotion. Some are even able to send what they're feeling, or even memories, though that is extraordinarily difficult. There were a couple times," I continued sheepishly, "where I accidentally let rip a blast of powerful emotion, usually either anger or depression. Since I'm still so new to this I haven't really gotten the hang of properly transmitting emotions. So I'm going to send a message to you, and you'll receive it. For receiving with no sender, first just practice becoming aware of everyone's thoughts around you and then once you're regularly aware of them trying honing in on one. That's a bit harder but I don't doubt that you'll have it down in 48 hours or less."

Even after I had finished speaking, Rachel simply stared at the wall, as if in awe of the new world I had opened up to her. She eventually spoke, slightly dazed, and said, "Well, lunch is...so you...you do that..." I didn't exactly want to leave her with such an ambiguous dismissal, but I knew I would be back shortly, and could in the meantime grab someone that might be able to help translate for me.

 

I ran out of the cave and towards the Dining Pavilion, hoping that I wasn't too late; Oracle-training really worked up an appetite. I managed to grab something quick before sitting down at my usual place at the, now mostly empty, Athena table. Gopher, thankfully, was still there, but I could tell she was feeling guilty about this morning, even though I had assured her that Rachel really wasn't all that mad. We had had a lot of fun, so the worry we caused everyone was almost worth it. 

"So, Newbie, what're you up to today in Top Secret Oracle Training?" She asked, grinning widely.

"I'm not sure if I can exactly tell you," I replied, kind of nervously.

"Oh, come on, surely you can tell your absolute best friend..." She was obviously teasing now, but I still felt compelled to tell her, most likely just wanting to talk about it with someone other than my mentor.

"So first I was learning about crystal balls--don't laugh, I know it sounds stupid but it's actually really cool!--and I started out with the really big ones because they're better able to project whatever I'm trying to see I guess? And then we've been moving down to smaller and smaller ones as I've gotten better, and it's possible that I eventually won't need one at all! But that probably won't be for a while, if it's ever possible, I'm not that good at focusing even with them at this point. And then today we're working on thought-sharing, which--" I cut off, suddenly finding it rather hard to breathe. 

"Woah, woah, Newbie, you okay there?" I nodded, trying to speak but instead ended up continuing to cough. "Abigail!"

She was about to call someone over when I managed to speak again. "No, no, I'm fine, I promise. This happens a lot embarrassingly enough," I tell her. 

"Okay," she said dubiously, "but how about you try eating and drinking now, and talking later? Okay, good? Good."

I finished eating (thankfully without any more incidents) and picked up where I left off. "So thought-sharing, it's kind of like telepathy except not, because you can't read their minds, it's more about opening their mind-box which they've given to you."

"This is the thing you and Liz can do?"

"Yeah, we've been able to almost since we met."

"Wow, that's really cool. Do you know why her of all people?"

"I think it was just one of those things you know? And she could do it before, and then gave the ability to me during the age jump so who knows."

"Well, I think it's super awesome that you can do all of this, you know. Speaking of which, off you go! Wouldn't want to keep Rachel again." She shooed me off, oddly quickly, but I figured it was just because she still felt guilty about last night/this morning. I ran back to Rachel, eager to continue our lessons. I was becoming more and more excited about them as they continued, and I was very interested in dream and prophecy interpretation.

I walked through the entrance and saw Rachel sitting there, ready to begin. "You ready? Great, after this morning, I think we should start off with...."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry about the 14-month wait, but I hope you liked it! I've been thinking of going back and editing the first several chapters in order to get myself motivated again and I would really like to write another chapter fairly soon, but no promises!


	16. It's Christmastime, Charlie Brown!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, two chapters in a day! I wish I could continue writing, but alas, I have homework I haven't started yet.

I spent the next week working diligently on my divination education (my divication, you could say), and I was duly rewarded for my efforts when Rachel told me I could go into the city that weekend with Gopher and Matt to do the shopping I wanted to do. I hadn't planned on asking Liz since I knew she had done hers on the actual day and figured she'd be busy with her general saving-the-world stuff, but she seemed very excited to come with us, if not just because we were three 13/14 year-olds and should probably have supervision. In all honesty, we all should have been helping with putting up decorations and everything, but I was secretly very glad to have time to hang out with her again. Not to mention, I really wanted to get Gopher to like her, she had seemed very tense whenever I brought her up, and I wasn't quite sure why. 

We were all ready to go the morning of, when Drew heard us talking about it and came up, saying, "Hey, weirdo! I figured since we never get to hang out," she took time to glare at me before continuing, "I should join you on your little trip! After all, three kids need more than one chaperone." I could see Gopher and Matt looking a little uncomfortable but I considered Drew a friend, or at least a friend-shaped person and wanted to make all my friends get along at least. And it's not like I could deny the intimidating daughter of Aphrodite.

Liz took us to the mall where she went with Annabeth and Mrs. Jackson (who I had yet to meet and was dying to do so), which was an idea that was apparently shared with what must have been the entirety of Manhattan. On my list of People That Must Receive Gifts were Rachel, Liz, Matt, Gopher, and Drew. Also Felix, since he was who I had drawn for Secret Santa. I didn't have too many ideas for anyone, just general topics that they might like. Except for Gopher, who I knew exactly what I wanted to get. 

 

We wandered around for a little while before deciding to go into this one beauty place that Liz and Drew seemed interested in and took a look around. While I didn't want to wear any of it, I found it hard to stop staring at all of the makeup, mesmerized. I overheard Drew talking to the salesperson following us around about how much she liked this one brand of lipstick, but how it would never stay on for very long. Once the salesperson had turned Drew towards the necklaces, I grabbed the one she had been looking at, knowing I would need some help with her gift.

I then followed them over there, seeing if there was anything anyone might like, when I spotted a bunch of charms to put on necklaces and bracelets and an idea came to me. I looked over the collection and found the one I had been hoping to see, so I grabbed it and went over to where the rest of my group was standing, waiting for me.

As we were about to check out, I saw the scented body products aisle and ran off to grab some wintery-smelling stuff for Liz. When we were in middle school, she would always keep tons of it in her locker and room, and loved to use it. I assumed that since she was constantly so busy, she had probably depleted her stock and deserved some more.

We continued onto the bookstore that was close by, because honestly, what kind of outing is complete without a stop by the local bit of heaven? I ended up having to be dragged away from the shop, but not without getting the three remaining gifts left on my list. 

 

We got back to camp just in time for dinner, and after that, we had to help with the preparation stuff, since we weren't there to do it during the day. Since Rachel and I were technically a part of the Apollo cabin, we had to help out with the decorating, as well as planning the campfire singalong and concert, which took much more effort than I was expecting. The campfire was simple, we do that often enough to know what to do for it other than choosing the songs, but the concert was...difficult. First, we had to set up the rules for the audition, then make the posters so we could get the word out, and finally figure out the decorations for it and finalize the order once the auditions were completed. And as for the decorations themselves, Will wanted us to hang some banners with "positive Oracle-y things", which neither of us really understood, so we ended up just saying random crap like "it is foreseen that you have good presents", "you can expect lots of treasures", and "we see a good year in front of you" (even though it wasn't technically a New Year's celebration, we just didn't feel like making new ones a week after Christmas).

The concert went splendidly, with Liz, Leo, and Will opening up with a beautifully somber 'I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day', which had something to do with a dream Liz had a few weeks back about World War III. Not a cheerful way to open up the show, but the perfect one nonetheless. After followed several other pieces, most of them Christmas themed, but some were traditional Hanukkah or Kwanzaa themed, since it was also that time of year.

Finally, the last group started singing. It was a duet of 'All I Want for Christmas Is You', and I saw many couples dancing in the audience, including everyone's OTP, Percabeth. I had heard a couple rumors floating around about Percy proposing soon, and sure enough, the end of the song neared, and everyone was proven wrong as Annabeth knelt down. To say everyone was happy would be a gross understatement. I think by the time she had stood up again, everyone had completely forgotten about the concert still going on, but I don't think Sammy and Tanya really minded, considering they had stopped singing and were instead freaking out just as much as the rest of us. Everyone went to bed extremely pleased, but none more so than Liz it looked like, who obviously must have had a hand in the events of the night. 

 

Soon enough, however, Christmas Day was upon us. When I woke up, I saw that I had a few presents: from Rachel, Apollo, and who appeared to be my family back in Michigan. Rachel had gotten me my own Thoroughly Exhaustive Book of Prophecies and How to Understand Them, which she had apparently found on eBay somehow. Apollo's gift was a little more...him. He had so kindly gifted me a complete collection of his poems. Rachel informed me that this was apparently his standard new-Oracle-appreciation-gift. I looked to the last one, a small stack of books with a letter, and I started to tear up. I always got a stack of books for Christmas, and it looked like I hadn't been overlooked this year. I could only hope they (along with Sarah and Andrew) got my present that I had sent a couple weeks before. Before I could forget reality entirely, I remembered to give Rachel her present, which she seemed to really enjoy.

Engrossed in her new paints, I went off to breakfast myself, where I managed to quickly drop my friends' presents on their plates and run away, because of course that's the proper way to do things, and waited for them to each inevitably corner me later. Liz laughed at the shampoo/conditioner/body wash/lotion set I had gotten her and promised to use the TARDIS notebook, which made me happier than it probably should have. Matt almost collapsed in tears when he opened his book of dad jokes, dedicated to "the wisest one of the group". Drew seemed extraordinarily emotional for the normally stony girl, even though I really didn't think it was all that impressive. I had just asked Lou Ellen for an enchantment that would make the lipstick stay on for 72 hours, but apparently that was enough for Drew to call me "Abigail" instead of "weirdo" for the first time.

The weirdest reaction I got, however, was the one from Gopher. On Thanksgiving when I was in the middle of recalling my ear-piercing-mishaps, she had mentioned how she had never gotten the chance to get hers pierced, but had always kind-of-maybe-wanted to. So I went out and found a gift card to this one trustworthy place in Manhattan, along with her very own set of owl earrings. I might have considered a punch to the arm enough thanks for it, but instead I received a very teary-eyed hug.

In return, she had bought a photo album, mostly empty at this point, but with plenty of pictures that had apparently been taken during my short while at camp. "To remember us by, when you go off being a genius in Virginia," she explained.

I couldn't help but laugh at that, because "I don't start until next fall, I thought you knew!" So while she was quite embarrassed about that, we decided to fill it up by the time I left in nine months time, and take plenty of pictures with my new spy friends.

 

Later that morning, was first the results of the cabin decorating contest. Demeter won, which made sense considering their magnificent decorations, although Rachel was a little miffed we didn't win; we had gone all out on our little two-person cave, covering it from head to toe with Rachel's art and our lovely not-sarcastic banners. 

After that were war games, which Rachel made sure I stayed well away from, to which I heartily agreed. I may have wanted to join in, but we all knew I would be dead within the hour if I did and ambrosia and nectar couldn't help me any. Liz and Percy (with the help of Holly the Amazon) won the game of capture the tree for their team, and again for the obstacle course, and again with the races. Having a fully-trained Amazon on your team really does wonders for the capabilities of your team it seems. 

Finally, finally, there was the Secret Santa giving. I had Alexis give him my present for me, but I stayed close enough to them so I could see his reaction, and I will say it was well worth it. He looked happier than he had all day and slipped his snowflake charm around the leather necklace I had given him, even though it as of now lacked the beads that typically came with it. I hoped that he got the message, and from the way he smiled at me once Alexis told him who it was, I think he did. All I really wanted was for him to feel at home, since I knew more or less how uncomfortable he had been feeling since coming here, and I just wanted to make him un-uncomfortable, if not comfortable quite yet. He was apparently comfortable enough to make an ice rink in the sword arena, which was fun if not a little worrying considering my knack of falling down when both my feet are on a fully frictioned surface.

There was a little bit of a break, and then came the dance, during which I mostly stood in a corner with Matt while Gopher kept insisting we join her. There may have been times when we appeared to dance, but there's no evidence so you can't prove anything. 

The campfire singalong was much more laid back, although the beaches were closed "for safety reasons" (three guesses as to who caused that *cough cough*). The songs were fun and we all had a very enjoyable time, although once a third of the camp had fallen asleep into their smores Chiron declared it time for bed, and we all retired to our cabins, content with what was a better day than I think most of us had been expecting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I did it! Thanks for joining me on this journey, it's time for the New Year next (though I'm not sure when that'll be, sorry) !


End file.
